a Patterns of vascular development from E14.5 to P0 during mouse brain cortical development. IB4 was used to label growing vessels in the cortical plate (CP). Scale bars, 100 μm. Quantification of blood vessel length (b) and the number of branch points (c) in the CP. Increased numbers of vessels and branch points were observed during brain cortical development. The data are represented as the means ± SEM (n = 3 animals). d Immunofluorescence staining for PRDM16 in the developing cerebral cortex at E16.5, E18.5, and P0. Immunostaining showed that PRDM16 was abundantly expressed in the VZ/SVZ. e E13.5 neural progenitor cells were isolated from the mouse embryonic cortex. PRDM16 was co-labeled with Nestin and PAX6 in cultured cells, and Prdm16 was expressed in NPCs in vitro. Scale bar, 50 μm. f IB4 immunostaining images of E18.5 cortical sections electroporated with a control shRNA or Prdm16 shRNA plasmid at E13.5. The electroporation of Prdm16 shRNA results in abnormal GFP-positive cells distribution (left), which consequently caused vascular defects in the cortical plate (right). Scale bar, 100 μm. Quantification of the change in vessel length (g) and the number of branch points (h) in the cortical plate after electroporation. The data are represented as the means ± SEM (n = 3; one-way ANOVA; *P < 0.05).