Figure 1.

An Adenovirus Expressing Neurturin Improves Ex Vivo SMG Growth after Irradiation Similar to Recombinant NRTN

(A) E13.5 SMGs were treated for 24 hr with increasing doses of AdNRTN, then IR (5 Gy) and cultured for a further 72 hr. The endbuds were counted and normalized to baseline. AdNRTN 10⁴ vp/c was used for subsequent experiments. N = 12 SMG/group. Error bars represent SEM. ANOVA with post hoc Dunnett’s test, **p < 0.001 when compared with IR control without AdNRTN treatment. (B) Bright-field images of E14 SMGs at T0 and again at 72 hr showing the increase in size after treatment with AdNRTN at 10⁴ vp/c and NRTN before IR. SMGs were treated for 24 hr with a control vector (AdC), AdNRTN (10⁴ vp/c), NRTN (1 ng/mL), then IR (5 Gy) and cultured for a further 72 hr. Scale bars: 200 μm. (C) The number of endbuds from (B) were counted and normalized to the number of endbuds at time 0. N = 4. Error bars represent the SEM. ANOVA with post hoc Dunnett’s test, *p < 0.01 when compared with IR control. (D) There is an increase in Nrtn expression with AdNRTN treatment, no change in Ret, and increased Tubb3 expression with IR. Gene expression relative to non-IR control and normalized to ribosomal protein S29 (Rps29) shows N = 3. Error bars represent the SEM. ANOVA compared with non-IR control, *p < 0.05. vp/c, viral particles per cell.