Fig. 4
From: Mechano growth factor, a splice variant of IGF-1, promotes neurogenesis in the aging mouse brain
Regulation of MGF in the proliferation and maturation of newborn neurons in the adult hippocampus. a Representative Z stack/3D structure of the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus (40X) showing BrdU-positive proliferating cells in the subgranular zone (SGZ). (a) BrdU density between MGF transgenic mice and the age-matched control mice; MGF overexpression enhances the cell proliferation. b Representative image of new adult-born mature neurons in the SGZ labeled with BrdU+/NeuN+/DCX- . (b) MGF overexpression increases the density of new adult-born mature neurons, (c, c) new adult-born immature neurons labeled with BrdU+/NeuN−/DCX+. (d, d) differentiated intermediate neurons in transition from immature to mature neurons at 1,4 and 9-month-old,compared to all age-matched control mice. (e) At the age of 1 month about 15% of newborn neurons are mature, about 40% are immature and about 42% are overlapping between mature and immature. However, compared to the control, the MGF transgenic mice have no difference regarding the distribution of newborn neurons at different maturation stages. (f) The percentage of the newborn neurons at different maturation stages are very similar between MGF transgenic and control mice when they are aging. (Error bars indicate ± SEM. * p < 0.01, N = 4 each group); (scale bar 20um)