Fig. 3.

Target areas for EGFP+ neurons for patch-clamp recordings. Locomotor activity was induced in GFP mice at age of P4–8. Slices were cut from spinal cords T₁₂–L₄. Photos were taken at ×10 magnification using Olympus confocal laser scanning microscope (see methods for details). Left: control; right: locomotion. Top: slices from P4 mice; middle: from P6; bottom: from P8. Control slices show that most of the EGFP-labeled cells are located in dorsal horn areas from laminas I–VI. A few of cells are also labeled near central canal area (laminar X). These EGFP-labeled cells are reduced with animal age. The locomotion slices show that in addition to the cells labeled in dorsal horn areas, a lot of cells are labeled in laminas VII, VIII and X. These labeled cells appear constantly with less correlation to the animal ages compared with the control ones. The EGFP-positive cells in laminas VII, VIII, and X are targeted for patch-clamp recordings.