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. 2012 Mar 26;7(3):e33090. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033090

Figure 1. Neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes respond differently to injury in vitro.

Figure 1

(A) Phase contrast micrograph of a scratch injury to a mixed cell culture of neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Injury was induced with a scalpel and 22 hours after the cut the cell cultures were fixed in 4% PFA and stained with specific antibodies against (B) neurons (β III tubulin, red), (C) astrocytes (GFAP, green) and (D) oligodendrocytes (CNPase, red). (E–F) Many TUNEL positive cells (green) with condensed nuclei (blue) were found to be in close contact with (E) GFAP positive astrocytes, but not with (F) neurons and only occasionally with (G) oligodendrocytes. Most of the (H) nestin positive cells were associated with TUNEL positive cells. (I) Quantification of dead, TUNEL positive cells that overlapped with either cell type show that astrocytes are the primary cell to be associated with dead cells. Dashed lines represent the scratch. Scale bars equal 50 µm (A–D) and 20 µm (E–H).