Figure 1

PDGFRβ expression in perivascular pericytes in the adult brain in control 129S1/SvlmJ mice and F7 mutants with two hypomorphic PDGFRβ alleles. (a) Bright-field imaging analysis of hematoxylin and eosin stained 6 month old 129S1/SvlmJ mouse cerebral hemisphere i. Low magnification image depicting brain regions used for fluorescent imaging experiments (broken rectangles). Parietal Ctx, Parietal Cortex; CA1, CA1 hippocampal subfield. ii-iii. Higher magnification image depicting the layered cytoarchitecture of the somatosensory parietal cortex (ii) and the CA1 hippocampal subfield (iii). Roman numerals represent cortical layers. Pyr., Pyramidale; Rad., Radiatum. (b) Representative confocal imaging analysis of dual in situhybridization for PdgfrβmRNA (green) and endothelial-specific GLUT1 immunodetection in brain capillaries (red) in layer III of the parietal cortex (left) and the stratum pyramidale of the CA1 hippocampal subfield (right) in 6 month old control 129S1/SvlmJ mouse. Scale bar 20 μm. (c) Representative three-color confocal imaging analysis of PDGFRβ immunodetection (red), NG2 immunodetection of perivascular pericytes (green), and lectin-positive brain capillaries (blue) in layer III of the parietal cortex (left) and stratum pyramidale of the CA1 hippocampal subfield (right) in a 6 month old 129S1/SvlmJ mouse. Colocalization: yellow. Scale bar 20 μm. (d) Representative three-color confocal imaging analysis of PDGFRβ immunodetection (green), β-gal nuclear immunodetection of pericyte-specific LacZ transgene (red), and lectin-positive brain capillaries (white) in layer III of the parietal cortex in a 2 month old xLacZ4transgenic mouse. Colocalization, arrows: yellow. Scale bar 20 μm. (e) Representative confocal imaging analysis of PDGFRβ immunodetection (red) and lectin-positive brain capillaries (green) in the parietal cortex of a 6 month old 129S1/SvlmJ littermate control (right) and F7 mouse (left). (f) Graph: PDGFRβ-positive pericyte coverage of lectin-positive brain capillary profiles in the cortex, hippocampus, striatum and cerebellum in 6-8 month old 129S1/SvlmJ controls and F7 mice. Mean ± SEM and n = 6 animals per genotype.