Figure 1.

Identification of essential signaling pathways in astrocyte reprogramming. (A) Experimental procedures. (B) Representative images of Ascl1 or Neurog2-induced neurons from postnatal cortical astrocytes by staining with Tuj1 at 12 dpi. Nuclei were counterstained with Hoechst 33342 (Hst). (C) Western blotting analysis of signaling pathways, including NOTCH1, mTOR, STAT3, AKT and P38, in Ascl1 or Neurog2-mediated astrocyte-to-neuron conversion. (D) qRT-PCR analysis of Notch1 expression in postnatal cortical and spinal astrocytes infected with Ascl1- or Neurog2-expressing virus at 3 dpi. (E) The expression of Notch1 signaling molecules, Notch1, Hes1 and Hey 1, in postnatal and adult cortical astrocytes was determined by qRT-PCR. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 by Student's t-test (n = 3 for each group). The scale bar represents 50 µm.