Figure 1.

Culturing sex-specific neurons and astrocytes and their molecular identification. (A) Visual examination-based separation of male (a) and female (b) embryos based on observation of testes and ovaries, respectively. (B) Confirmation of sex-specific nature of cultured neurons and astrocytes using female-specific Xist gene expression. Xist transcript expression is detected only in female cells. For all samples, N = 3, except for female neurons, for which N = 2. Error bars represent standard error of the mean (SEM) with **** p < 0.0001. (C) Il3/Sry-based confirmation of male or female sex using agarose gel electrophoresis. PCR product sizes are Sry, 402 bp; Il3, 544 bp. Sry is detected only in males, while Il3 is detected in all samples.