Figure 2
Terminal Schwann cells were ablated 1 week after DTX treatment and returned within 3 weeks. For each set of images, tSCs, denoted by asterisks, express cytoplasmic tdTomato (pseudo-colored green) and overlay their corresponding AChRs (pseudo-colored red) in the composite. (A) Wild-type neuromuscular junction. Three tSCs completely cover the AChR stain. (B) One week post-tSC ablation. All tSCs have been ablated, but some SC signal remains along the axon. (C) Three weeks post-tSC ablation. Ten tSCs completely overlay the AChR stain. (D) Average number of tSCs per NMJ in each group. At 1 week post-tSC ablation, 34% of all experimental NMJs had zero tSCs. Welch’s t-test was used to compare sham to experimental. (E) Percentage of NMJs that had full tSC coverage, were partially bare, or were fully bare. Each sham group showed > 98% of NMJs having full tSC coverage. Fisher Exact test was used to compare sham to experimental. n = 6 or 7 mice for each condition, 15–30 NMJs per mouse. Values expressed as mean ± SEM. Sham groups did not differ from other sham groups at any time point. Asterisks indicate significant difference from the corresponding sham group. *p < .05; ****p < .0001. Fiji and Microsoft Powerpoint were used to generate this figure. All scale bars 20 µm.
