Figure 4.

Endogenous Panx1 and Panx2 show non-overlapping signals in hippocampal neurons and astrocytes. Confocal images of the CA1 field of the hippocampus in the adult mouse brain are shown in (A–C). Images in (A,B) are single confocal planes while (C) represents maximum intensity projections of confocal image stacks to better show the astrocyte morphology. The tissue has been immunolabeled for Panx1 (left black and white image column), Panx2 (middle black and white image column) and the astrocytic marker, GFAP (right black and white image column). In the color image column labeled “Merged” (middle column of figure), the three black and white images were superimposed with the Panx1, Panx2, and GFAP labelings displayed in green, red and blue, respectively. Three-fold enlargements of two areas highlighted by yellow and cyan boxes in each of these merged images are displayed in the two far right columns (cyan = far right column, yellow = column left of right hand column). These enlargements only display the Panx1 (green) and Panx2 (red) signal to better show the cellular segregation of Panx1 and Panx2 in CA1 pyramidal cells and astrocytes. Example astrocytes are indicated by arrows, neurons by arrowheads and capillaries by an asterisk. Note that in astrocytes and neurons there is little overlap in populations of Panx1 and Panx2. Also, the capillaries contain Panx1, but not Panx2.