Figure 2.

Phenotype plasticity experiment. Ventral root grafts harvested from female Lewis rats were sewn to the femoral cutaneous branch of male Lewis rats. After 1 month of inappropriate reinnervation by cutaneous axons, the grafts were denervated for 1 week and their expression profiles were determined by RT-PCR. A portion of the proximal graft was excised at the time of denervation to exclude tissue that could have been invaded by host Schwann cells. PCR for a Y-chromosome-specific gene was performed on genomic DNA isolated from the grafts to ensure that the remaining Schwann cells were of graft origin.