Figure 9.

Expression characteristics of a dual promoter vector constructed using cluster differentiation (CD)44 and vimentin (VIM) promoters. pFIN-CD44-CHER-VIM-GFP-WPRE lentivirus was injected into the developing neural tubes of E2 chicken embryos in ovo. Retinal whole mounts were photographed twice using filters appropriate for detection of GFP (A) or CHER (B) and the exposure times (ms) shown in the lower left of the images. The GFP and CHER images were merged (C) and analyzed using the co-localization module of the Zeiss AxioVision Image Suite. The relative percent area (pixels) of the merged image containing GFP (green bar) or CHER (red bar) fluorescence alone or both GFP and CHER (yellow bar) is shown in panel D. Sections of the transduced retinas revealed that GFP expression was largely restricted to Müller cells (arrow, E). A few GFP-positive horizontal cells were detected in these retinas but their numbers were reduced relative to the numbers of these cells that were present in retinas transduced with pFM-VIM-GW (Figure 2J-N). Scale bars shown in A and E equal 50 µm.