Fig. 2.

BDNF enhances the phenotypic differentiation of GABAergic neurons but has no effect on neuronal survival. Hippocampal cultures were treated for 5 d with either BDNF or TrkB-IgG or were left untreated; cultures were then double-labeled for the neuronal marker NSE and the GABAergic neuronal marker GAD. Numbers of NSE-positive and GAD-positive neurons were counted independently; all counts were done blind. A, BDNF treatment did not affect neuronal survival. Means ± SEM are shown; n = 9 dishes per condition with 20 fields counted and averaged per dish; p > 0.35 for any pairwise comparison by ANOVA. B, BDNF increased the percentage of GAD-positive neurons. *p < 0.008 indicates a significant difference by ANOVA between BDNF and either control or TrkB-IgG treatment groups; n = 9 dishes per condition with 20 fields counted and averaged per dish.