Figure 4.

Gsx1 affects the generation of specific types of interneurons in the injured spinal cord

(A–C) Confocal images of sagittal sections of spinal cord tissues at 14 DPI show the expression of the viral reporter RFP and early neuronal marker doublecortin (DCX) (A), astrocyte marker GFAP (B), and oligodendrocyte progenitor marker PDGFRa (C). Arrows indicate cell marker⁺/RFP⁺ co-labeled cells. Images in the bottom left corner show a higher magnification z stack view of the area denoted by a dashed white box. Scale bars, 20 μm. (D–F) Quantification of virally transduced cells co-labeled with DCX, GFAP, or PDGFRa (n = 3). Gene expression box plots of DCX (D), GFAP (E), and PDGFRa (F) at 35 DPI between SCI+Ctrl and SCI+Gsx1 groups. Each dot represents the gene expression as log₂(count per million) for one biological replicate sample. Mean ± SEM. ∗p < 0.05 by Students’ t test. (G–J) Confocal images of sagittal sections of spinal cord tissues at 56 DPI show the expression of viral reporter RFP and a mature neuron marker NeuN (G), glutamatergic neuron marker vGlut2 (H), cholinergic neuron marker ChAT (I), and GABAergic neuron marker GABA (J) with quantification (n = 4). Images in the bottom left corner show a higher magnification z stack view of the area denoted by a dashed white box. Scale bars, 20 μm. (K) Quantitative real-time PCR analysis shows vGlut and Chat mRNA expression at 35 DPI, normalized to the sham group; n = 3. Mean ± SEM ∗p < 0.05 by one-way ANOVA followed by a Tukey post hoc test.