FIGURE 3.

Neuronal cells marked by virus in cultured sciatic nerves. (A) Sciatic nerve culture model. The sciatic nerves of adult rats were cultured in a defined serum-free medium. n = 8 (totally). (B) Cultured sciatic nerves infected by CMV-promoter mCherry AAV2/9 virus and hSYN-promoter GFP AAV2/9 virus for 2 weeks. Distribution of CMV-promoter GFP⁺ cells (green) and hSYN-promoter mCherry⁺ cells (red) in the cultured sciatic nerves. n = 3 (sciatic nerves with GFP⁺ mCherry⁺ cells). Scale bar, 50 μm. (C) The quantification of GFP⁺ cells and mCherry⁺ cell number in the cultured sciatic nerves which were infected by CMV-promoter mCherry AAV2/9 virus and hSYN-promoter GFP AAV2/9 virus. The circle points represented the number of GFP⁺ cells. The triangular points represented the number of mCherry⁺ cells (n = 3 of 8 which contain the GFP⁺ mCherry⁺ cells). (D) Virus-labeled cells are neuronal cells. Immunofluorescence staining for Peripherin (red) and DAPI (gray) was performed in cultured adult rat sciatic nerves with GFP (green)-labeled cells after 2 weeks infection of the hSYN-promoter GFP AAV2/9 virus. n = 4 (all the GFP⁺ cells could be stained by Peripherin). Scale bar, 50 μm.