Figure 2

PTEN protein phosphatase activity maintains NSCs in a progenitor state. (A) Cells were transduced with WT or mutant PTEN (Y138L, G129E, or C124S: mutations in either protein or lipid phosphatase domain, or both, respectively) or PTEN shRNA. Protein expression was absent in PTEN RNAi cells. (B) Lentiviral transduction of WT, Y138L, G129E, and C124S resulted in the expression of a 55 kDa band corresponding to the PTEN protein, as seen by western blotting. GAPDH was used as a loading control. (C) NSCs transduced with GFP, PTEN shRNA, or WT, Y138L, G129E, or C124S constructs were labeled with an antibody against the neuronal marker Tuj1. Scale bar = 40 μm. (D) Increased neuronal differentiation was observed upon loss of PTEN protein phosphatase activity (Y138L). Data are expressed as mean ± SD. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001 (n > 800 cells per group from each experiment).