Figure 7.

Palladin antisense inhibits neurite extension from primary cortical neuron in culture. (A) GFP alone, GFP plus the empty vector, or GFP plus palladin antisense were transiently expressed in rat cortical primary culture cells with the use of two different methods: transfection with Lipofectamine PLUS (top) or electroporation (bottom). In both cases, cells were cultured for 4 d after transfection and then fixed and analyzed by confocal microscopy. Antisense-transfected cortical neurons exhibited a failure to extend neurites. (B) Quantification of the results shown above. Cells with neurites of greater than two body lengths were scored as long neurite-bearing cells; the others were scored as short-neurite bearing. At least 40–100 cells for each treatment were counted. Results are expressed as the mean percentages of short or long neurite-bearing cells. Similar results were obtained with both methods of antisense transfection.