Figure 9. Expression characteristics of a
dual promoter vector constructed using cluster differentiation (CD)44
and vimentin (VIM) promoters. pFIN-CD44-CHER-VIM-GFP-WPRE lentivirus
was injected into the developing neural tubes of E2 chicken embryos
in
ovo. Retinal whole mounts were photographed twice using filters
appropriate for detection of GFP (
A) or CHER (
B) and the
exposure times (ms) shown in the lower left of the images. The GFP and
CHER images were merged (
C) and analyzed using the
co-localization module of the Zeiss AxioVision Image Suite. The
relative percent area (pixels) of the merged image containing GFP
(green bar) or CHER (red bar) fluorescence alone or both GFP and CHER
(yellow bar) is shown in panel
D. Sections of the transduced
retinas revealed that GFP expression was largely restricted to Müller
cells (arrow,
E). A few GFP-positive horizontal cells were
detected in these retinas but their numbers were reduced relative to
the numbers of these cells that were present in retinas transduced with
pFM-VIM-GW (
Figure 2J-N). Scale bars
shown in
A and
E equal 50 µm.