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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Immunol. 2014 May 23;193(1):139–149. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1303284

Figure 2. During Toxoplasma infection TGFβ signaling is inhibited specifically in eGFP+ astrocytes in Ast-Tbr2DN mice.

Figure 2

A. Schematic representation of the double-transgenic Astrocytic Tbr2 Dominant Negative mouse (Ast-Tbr2DN) line. The first transgene encodes the tetracycline transactivator protein (tTA), driven by a GFAP promoter. tTA binds the bidirectional bi-tetO promoter on the second transgene to stimulate expression of both eGFP and a dominant negative mutant type II TGFβ receptor which cannot initiate downstream signaling. B. Representative images of 2 wpi Ast-Tbr2DN brain section, stained as indicated. Arrowhead denotes the nucleus of the GFAP+/eGFP+ cell. Scale bar, 20 μm. Large image: Enlargement of merged image (all 4 channels). C. Percentage of GFAP+ cells in wildtype or Ast-Tbr2DN brain sections that showed nuclear pSmad2 expression at 2 wpi, as assessed by confocal microscopy. Note that in Ast-Tbr2DN mice the GFAP+ cells are subdivided into GFAP+/eGFP+ and GFAP+/eGFP− cells. N=4 mice per genotype, 100 GFAP+ cells per mouse. Bars, mean ± SEM. *P<0.05, Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s correction for multiple comparisons.