Total Sema-2a immunofluorescence was then divided by total N-cadherin to obtain the normalized fluorescence intensity of Sema-2a. Two separate staining experiments were averaged. Because the intensity of staining in WT brains varied between experiments, the percent change from WT was calculated for each experiment. Percent change from WT equals normalized fluorescence for each RNAi condition divided by the normalized WT fluorescence.

The average percent change and standard error for each condition Selleckchem MEK inhibitor is graphed. This work was supported by NIH (R01-DC005982 to L.L., R01-NS35165 to A.L.K.) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (to A.L.K., K.C.G., and L.L.). L.B.S. was supported by the Developmental and Neonatal Training Program (T32 HD007249) and a Lieberman Fellowship. We thank

N. Goriatcheva and D. Luginbuhl for technical assistance, U. Heberlein and E.C. Marin for an unpublished GAL4 line, and W. Hong for critical comments. Luminespib concentration “
“Adult neurogenesis and tissue regeneration are central features of the postnatal olfactory system of vertebrates. Primary olfactory sensory neurons and other cells in the nose turn over constantly and are replaced over the lifetime of the animal. Under normal conditions, olfactory sensory neurons have

a limited lifespan and are replaced through the proliferation and differentiation of progenitor cells (Graziadei and Graziadei, 1979, Mackay-Sim and Kittel, 1991 and Smart, 1971). Upon injury or chemical insult, for example exposure to toxins such as MeBr or zinc sulfate, the entire olfactory epithelium is reconstituted from these progenitor cells within several months (Burd, 1993, Matulionis, 1975, Matulionis, 1976 and Schwob et al., 1995). Two cell types have emerged over the Thymidine kinase years as candidate stem cells of the olfactory epithelium: horizontal basal cells (HBCs) and globose basal cells (GBCs). Distinguished by cell morphology (Graziadei and Graziadei, 1979) and the expression of certain marker genes, both cell types reside in the basal compartment of the pseudostratified olfactory epithelium, starting at perinatal stages (Figure 1A). Although it is well established that some GBCs are precursors already committed to the neuronal lineage (Caggiano et al., 1994 and Cau et al., 1997), several studies suggest the existence of multipotent GBCs in the olfactory epithelium (Chen et al., 2004, Gokoffski et al., 2011, Huard et al., 1998 and Manglapus et al., 2004). Other lines of investigation favor the HBC as the olfactory stem cell.