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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2007 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Dev Biol. 2006 Oct 24;303(1):1–15. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2006.10.026

Figure 1. Gut NCSCs give rise to cholinergic neurons in parasympathetic ganglia.

Figure 1

E14.5 rat gut p75+α 4+ NCSCs were isolated by flow cytometry and injected into the hindlimb bud somites of stage 17–18 chick embryos. After 72 hours (stage 29), chicks were fixed, sectioned, and hybridized in situ with a rat-specific probe against the pan-neuronal marker Stmn2 (A). Upon identifying series of sections in the parasympathetic plexus (A–E; blue bars) and Remak’s ganglion (E; gray bars) that were bracketed by Stmn2+ rat neurons, intervening sections were hybridized with the cholinergic marker VAChT (B), the autonomic markers Gata2 (C), and Ret (D), and the noradrenergic marker TH (not shown). The number of cells per section expressing each marker was counted and expressed as a percentage of Stmn2+ cells in the flanking sections (E). Eight out of 9 chicks had VAChT+, Gata2+, and Ret+ cells in the pelvic plexus but no TH expression was observed (E). A significantly lower percentage of cells in Remak’s ganglion were Gata2+ as compared with the parasympathetic plexus (p<0.001). Bars (E) represent mean ± standard deviation.