Figure 8.

The existence of NG2 ⁺ /TOAD-64 ⁺ /CNP-GFP ⁺ immature hippocampal neurons establishes a lineage continuum between NG2 ⁺ /CNP-GFP ⁺ progenitor cells and NG2 ⁻ /NeuN ⁺ /CNP-GFP ⁺ neurons in the adult dentate gyrus. Confocal photomicrographs (merged images from 4–6 optical sections of 0.5 μm each) of three representative fields of P30 hippocampal slices in which CNP-GFP⁺ cells were immunolabeled for either TOAD-64 and NeuN (A–D, dentate gyrus), TOAD-64 and NG2 (E–H, dentate gyrus), or NeuN and NG2 (I–L, CA3). 0.5-μm thin single plane high magnification images of single cells are shown for each panel as insets located in the upper right corners (A–L). In A–D and E–H, white arrows point to NG2⁺/TOAD-64⁺/CNP-GFP⁺ early post-mitotic neurons that expressed levels of GFP higher than differentiated NG2⁻/NeuN⁺/CNP-GFP⁺ neurons (A–D, arrowheads; I–L, arrows). Red arrows in A–D and E–H depict TOAD-64⁺ neuronal cells that did not express CNP-GFP. Bars, 50 μm for all panels.