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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Apr 13.
Published in final edited form as: Eur J Neurosci. 2013 Dec 9;39(5):757–770. doi: 10.1111/ejn.12450

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

Comparison of immunofluorescence labelling for Cx36, Cx37, Cx43 and Cx45 among lumbar spinal motoneurons in lamina IX of neonatal and adult mouse and rat. In all figures, color code for secondary antibody fluorochrome and target protein is as indicated. (A–C) Images showing Cx36-puncta among peripherin-positive motoneurons (A, arrows) in mouse spinal cord at PD5, and higher magnification showing association of Cx36-puncta with motoneuron somata and dendrites in mouse (B, arrows) and rat (C, arrows) spinal cord at PD5. (D–F) Double immunofluorescence for Cx36 and Cx37 among motoneurons (peripherin labelling excluded), showing widely distributed Cx36-puncta in mouse at PD5 (D) and PD10 (E), and in rat at PD5 (F), with labelling for Cx37 restricted to blood vessels (arrows). (G) Adult rat spinal cord ventral horn labelled for peripherin and counterstained with blue fluorescence Nissl. (H,I) Magnifications of boxed areas in G (H, lower box; I, upper box) triple labelled for Cx36, Cx37 and peripherin, showing Cx36-puncta among two peripherin-positive motoneuronal groups (H, large arrows), absence of labelling for Cx37 among these groups, and labelling of Cx37 restricted to small blood vessels (H, small arrows) and a single large vessel in lamina VIII (I, arrow). (J) Double labelling of Cx43 with peripherin in lamina IX of rat at PD5, showing very little association of sparsely-distributed Cx43-puncta with the surface of peripherin-positive motoneurons. (K) Double labelling of Cx36 with Cx45 in lamina IX of rat at PD5, showing Cx36-puncta among motoneurons (K1) and only a low level of background fluorescence in the same field labelled for Cx45 (K2). (L) Triple labelling for Cx36, Cx45 and peripherin in lamina IX of adult rat, showing Cx36-puncta on the surface of peripherin-positive motoneurons (L1, arrows), minimal Cx45 localization to these neurons, and association of Cx45 with what appear to be blood vessels (L1, arrowheads), also shown in the same field with labelling of Cx45 alone (L2).