Different Neurogenic Potential in the Subnuclei of the Postnatal Rat Cochlear Nucleus

Figure 4

Propagated stem cells of all subnuclei express markers of the neuroectodermal lines after an eight-day differentiation phase. It was examined whether there are relevant differences in differentiation in cultures of the different regions. The marker β-III-tubulin identifies neuronally differentiated cells. Astrocytes show expression of GFAP, and oligodendrocytes can be identified immunohistochemically by MBP. (a) AVCN, PVCN, and DCN showed, on average, 26-32% β-III-tubulin-positive neurons (mean; ). (b) The majority of the cells were glial differentiated and GFAP positively stained (38-39%) (mean; ). (c) MBP-positive labeled oligodendrocytes were present in 28-31% of the cells of the subnuclei (mean; ). There were no significant differences in the rates of neural stem cell differentiation between the CN subnuclei. (d–f) Intraindividual analysis of the relations of differentiation markers. Significant variances in differentiation were found in progenitor cells from AVCN and PVCN. Most of the cells expressed the glial cell marker GFAP, followed by oligodendrocytes (MBP). The smallest part of the cells showed neuronal differentiation with β-III-tubulin expression. The same tendency emerged in the area of the DCN. Box plots show the median with the upper and lower quartiles, and whiskers mark the upper and lower maximum values; asterisks indicate the significance level: , , , and .

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