Fig. 3.

Surviving Dicer-deficient NSCs display abnormal differentiation. (A) Under the differentiation condition without mitogens, passaged (p-1) NSCs collected from Dicer knockout (Ko) cortices gave rise to cells expressing neuronal (Tuj1⁺) and glial (GFAP⁺ and O4⁺) markers. However, their morphology was abnormal, as shown with shorter neurites than controls (Ctrl). (B) The majority of Dicer-deficient NSCs underwent cell death, shown as an example of p-1 NSCs in differentiation condition cultured for 2 days in vitro. n=6 fields; **P<0.0008. (C) Dicer-deficient NSCs did not survive well in a differentiation culture medium without mitogens. Whereas control neurospheres (p-2) survived, most Dicer KO neurospheres died after 48 hours in culture. Many differentiated cells (arrows) migrated away from the control neurosphere but not from the Dicer-deficient neurosphere.