Fig. 3.

Selectivity towards and infectivity of adult NSCs in the mouse brain. (A) Representative images at low (main, 20×) and high (inset, 100×) magnification of the mouse dentate gyrus 3 weeks post-injection of recombinant AAV2, AAV6 or AAV r3.45 vectors expressing GFP (green). Brain sections were co-stained for nestin (top row, red) or NeuN (bottom row, red) along with DAPI (blue), and infected cells of each type are marked with arrowheads. Dashed rectangles indicate the regions shown at high magnification in the insets. Scale bar: 100 μm. (B) The percentage of GFP⁺ cells co-staining for markers of each cell type was quantified to determine the selectivity of each viral vector. (C) The percentage of GFP⁺ cells co-staining for NeuN (a neuronal marker) or NeuN and BrdU (a cell division marker) were analyzed to determine the proportion of GFP⁺ neurons that had differentiated from infected NSCs prior to sacrifice. (D) The percentage of GFP⁺ cells co-staining for markers of each cell type was quantified to determine the selectivity of variant AAV r3.45 at 3, 7 and 14 days post-injection. (E) The percentage of nestin⁺/Sox2⁺ (Type 2a) cells infected by each viral vector was quantified to determine the infectivity of NSCs. Error bars indicate s.d. (n=3); **P<0.005, ***P<0.001 (ANOVA).