Figure 11.

Nuclear inhibition or cytoplasmic facilitation of cdk5 protects against excitotoxic death in CGNs. After 5 d in culture, CGNs were infected with the indicated adenoviral constructs at a multiplicity of infection of 20 and subjected to glutamate 2–3 d later. At 3 h after glutamate treatment, cells were fixed and immunostained for MAP2. Nuclei were stained with Hoescht. The total number of GFP-positive live neurons (MAP2-positive cells) were counted in a circumscribed area. Survival is represented relative to non-glutamate-treated cultures infected with the same construct. Adenoviral infections did not alter survival in nonglutamate-treated cultures. Each error bar represents mean ± SEM from three independent experiments. *p < 0.001, **p < 0.01 by ANOVA. Protection with MK801 verifies that death is NMDA dependent.