Fig. 1

Generation and characterization of nestin-luc/GFP mice. a The rat promoter of the nestin gene was amplified from the recombinant plasmid. The 5.1-kb fragment was subcloned into a TOPO vector, sequenced, and inserted into the recombinant plasmid pIRES-Luc2-AcGFP. A 654-bp second intron of the rat nestin gene was also amplified from the pNERV recombinant plasmid and inserted between the Cla1 restriction sites at the end of the final construct. The construct pIRES-rNestin-promoter-Luc2-AcGFP-int2 was removed from its host plasmid and microinjected into the pronuclei of fertilized single-cell mouse embryos. b Genotyping PCR analysis for luciferase (Luc2) in the ear tissue of nestin-luc-GFP transgenic mice. c In vivo imaging of the photon emission in the brain of the nestin-luc-GFP transgenic mice. Immunofluorescent labeling shows the co-localization between GFP (green) and nestin (red) in nestin-Luc-GFP mice in different neurogenic regions of the brain such as the subventricular zone (d–g), dentate gyrus (h–k), and olfactory bulb (l–o) (n = 3 mice). The white arrowheads show the double positive cells. Scale bar: 100 μm