Figure 3. NSC differentiation on NanoRU coated with SOX9 siRNA (siSOX9).

(a) RT-PCR analysis reveals differences in transcript levels for SOX9 and differentiation markers for neurons (TuJ1), astrocytes (GFAP) and oligodendrocytes (MBP) in the presence or absence of siSOX9 and/or NanoRU. (b) Quantitative comparison of the percentage of cells expressing TuJ1 and GFAP. Student's unpaired t-test was used for evaluating the statistical significance for cells stained for TuJ1, compared to the siSOX9 on NanoRU condition (** = P < 0.001). (c) Fluorescence images of cells stained for the nucleus (blue), the neuronal marker TuJ1 (red, left column), the astrocyte marker GFAP (green, middle column) and merged (last column) show the extent of differentiation of NSCs grown on: no NanoRU nor siSOX9 coating (top row), NanoRU without siSOX9 coating (middle row), and NanoRU with siSOX9 coating (bottom row). Scale bars: 50 μm.