Fig. 6. The quantitative evaluation of in vitro neurogenesis using flow-cytometry
revealed a development-dependent distribution pattern. A clear delay in the
generation of strong EGFP-positive progenitors was observed in the retinoic
acid untreated (right panels) versus the treated (left panels) EBs. The
maximal generation of progenitors occurred between d4 and d10 after plating in
the RA-treated cells. Notice the decline in the number of EGFP-positive cells
accompanied by a compensatory increase in EGFP-negative cells, suggesting a
transition to the differentiated neuronal population. While the population of
undifferentiated D3 ES cells (A) was used for calibration of the system
(estimate of the range of auto-fluorescence), a relatively homogenous EGFP
expression was noticed in the undifferentiated h-nestin-EGFP cells (B). The
EGFP fluorescence intensity on the horizontal axis is displayed as log scale;
the vertical axis represents the percentage of gated cells. Numbers in the
top-left corner indicate the differentiation stage. (B) A quantitative
evaluation of the in vitro neurogenesis was obtained by averaging two to three
experiments per time point of differentiation. This analysis clearly showed
that the decline in the strong EGFP-positive (EGFP+++ and
EGFP++) and weak EGFP-positive (EGFP+) cell population
was accompanied by a parallel increase in EGFP-negative (EGFP-)
cells.