Fig. 7

CXCL12 promotes and a CXCR4 antagonist inhibits differentiation and maturation of aNSCs. a Representative images of immunofluorescent staining for NPCs (DCX⁺, red) and OPCs (NG2⁺, green) in cultures of aNSCs undergoing differentiation in the absence or presence of CXCL12 (10 ng/ml). b Quantitative analysis of NPCs (DCX⁺). c Quantitative analysis of OPCs (NG2⁺). d Representative images of immunofluorescent staining for maturing neurons (βΙΙΙ-tubulin⁺, green) or oligodendrocytes (MBP⁺, red) in cultures of aNSCs undergoing differentiation in the absence or presence of CXCL12 (10 ng/ml). e Quantitative analysis of maturing neurons (βΙΙΙ-tubulin⁺). f Quantitative analysis of mature oligodendrocytes (MBP⁺). g Representative images of immunofluorescent staining (upper panel) for NPCs (DCX⁺, red) and OPCs (NG2⁺, green) and (lower panel) for maturing neurons (βΙΙΙ-tubulin⁺, green) or oligodendrocytes (MBP⁺, red) in cultures of aNSCs undergoing differentiation in the absence or presence of the CXCR4 antagonist, AMD3100 (100 ng/ml, added twice a day), CXCL12 (10 ng/ml) alone, or CXCL12 and AMD3100 combined after 5 days in culture. Cultures with AMD3100 alone or with no additive served as respective controls. h Quantitative analysis of neural progenitors NPCs (DCX⁺) and OPCs (NG2⁺). i Quantitative analysis of maturing neurons (βΙΙΙ-tubulin⁺) or oligodendrocytes (MBP⁺). Results in b, c, e, f, h, and i are presented as percentages of nuclei numbers and represent the mean ± SEM from three independent experiments. Nuclei were visualized by DAPI counterstaining. *p ≤ 0.05; **p = 0.02; ‡p ≤ 0.002; § p = 0.04. Scale bars: a, d, g 50 μm