FIG. 5.

Ngn3 displays its proneural activity on HFC7 cells without affecting glial pathways. (A) Proportions of HFC7 cells from different neural lineages at 4 days after transduction with the VSV-PGK-LacZ and VSV-PGK-Ngn3 vectors. Overexpression of Ngn3 induced a highly significant decrease in the proportion of Nestin⁺ cells, together with a very significant increase in the proportions of A2B5⁺ cells and MAP5⁺ neuroblasts, and a significant increase in β3 Tubulin⁺ neuroblasts. However, it did not affect the proportions of GFAP⁺ astrocytes and O4⁺ oligodendrocytes. Note that the proportion of MAP2⁺ mature neurons underwent a significant decrease, which may reflect either neuronal death or dedifferentiation. (B) Immunofluorescent staining against the various markers tested in A, after hNPC transduction with the VSV-PGK-LacZ (upper cases) and VSV-PGK-Ngn3 (lower cases) vectors. (C) The decrease in the proportion of Nestin⁺ cells reflected a very significant decrease in the proportions of both Nestin⁺/GFAP-neuroepithelial cells and Nestin⁺/GFAP⁺ astrocytes. However, the global proportion of GFAP⁺ astrocytes was not affected by Ngn3 overexpression. (D) The increase in the proportion of A2B5⁺ cells reflected a very significant increase in the proportion of A2B5⁺/MAP5⁺ neuroblasts. However, Ngn3 overexpression did not affect the proportion of A2B5⁺/MAP5⁻ OPCs. Student's t-test: *P<0.05; **P<0.01; ***P<0.001. Scale bar: 50 μm.