FIGURE 6.

Neuronal stem-like cells in sciatic nerves of adult rats. (A) Stem cell marker staining of neuronal cells in sciatic nerves after virus injection. Immunofluorescent staining for Nestin (red) and DAPI (gray) of GFP⁺ (green) neuronal cells after infection of hSYN-promoter GFP AAV2/9 virus. n = 12 (GFP⁺ sciatic nerves), n = 5 (Nestin⁺ sciatic nerves). Scale bar, 20 μm. (B) Neuronal cells in a phase of division. Confocal images of immunostaining of Mcm2 (gray), Peripherin (red), and DAPI (blue) in GFP⁺ (green) neuronal cells. The sciatic nerves were infected by hSYN-promoter GFP AAV2/9 virus. n = 12 (sciatic nerves with GFP⁺ neuronal cells), n = 3 (Mcm2⁺ sciatic nerves). Scale bar, 50 μm. (C) The quantification of the number of Nestin⁺ cells in the sciatic nerves with neuronal cells. The sciatic nerves with neuronal cells were infected by hSYN-promoter GFP AAV2/9 virus (n = 5 of 12 which contain Nestin⁺ cells, the other without Nestin⁺ cells). (D) The quantification of the percentage of Mcm2⁺ cells among all GFP⁺ neuronal cells in the sciatic nerves. The cultured sciatic nerves were infected by hSYN-promoter GFP AAV2/9 virus. The circle points represent the percentage of Mcm2⁺ cells among GFP⁺ cells (n = 3). The white arrow points to the positive cells.