Neocortical gene expression of <i>ephrin A5</i> at P4 in control and enucleated mice.

<p>All panels are high magnification views of 100μm coronal sections of P4 brain hemispheres following <i>in situ</i> RNA hybridization with probes directed against <i>ephrin A5</i> (A1-B3). <i>Ephrin A5</i> expression in the somatosensory-motor amalgam (A1-B1; ROI in C1) exhibited no significant difference between control and experimental animals (control 44.50 ± 2.308% and enucleated 39.02 ± 0.978%). <i>Ephrin A5</i> transcripts within control somatosensory cortex extend further medially (compare arrows in A2 and B2) into superficial layers when compared to enucleated cases (D2, ROI in C2; control 49.94 ± 2.654% and enucleated 28.18 ± 1.869%; <i>P</i> < 0.001). ROIs within visual cortex (C3) revealed significant reductions of <i>ephrin A5</i> expression in enucleated animals when compared to controls (D3; control 37.14 ± 1.076%, enucleated 16.94 ± 0.996%; <i>P</i> < 0.0001). S: somatosensory cortex; V: visual cortex; s-m: somatosensory-motor amalgam. All sections oriented dorsal (D) up and medial (M) to the left. Scale bar = 500μm. N = 6 controls and n = 6 enucleates.