MeCP2 absence does not prevent neuronal and astroglia differentiation.

<p>Confocal microscopy optical sections of <i>Mecp2</i> wild type (left) and <i>Mecp2</i> deficient cells (right) at differentiation day 13 revealed astroglia (GFAP⁺) and different neuronal subtypes (EGFP⁺, TH⁺, Sero⁺). Bar: 10 µm. A. Differentiated <i>Mecp2</i> wild type and <i>Mecp2</i> deficient cells exhibit GFAP positive astroglia (red) and EGFP positive neurons (green). Both labels marked mutually exclusive cell populations. B. The population of EGFP positive cells could be further subdivided into tyrosine hydroxylase (TH⁺) positive neurons (red). Those cells were found to be present in both <i>Mecp2</i> wild type and <i>Mecp2</i> deficient cells. While not all EGFP⁺ neurons (green) are TH⁺, all TH⁺ are positive for EGFP (yellow color in overlay). C. In addition to a TH⁺/EGFP⁺ subpopulation neurons, another serotonin positive (Sero⁺) subpopulation was detected in both cell lines. Similar to the situation described above, Sero⁺ cells (red) were always EGFP⁺ (green) while a considerable amount of EGFP⁺ cells were Sero⁻.