Fig. 1. Morphology of neural retina cells transfected with retrovirus containing EGFP, dnLEF-EGFP, caß-catenin-EGFP or caLEF-EGFP. (A) Retinal explants were prepared from E17.5 mouse embryos and infected with retrovirus encoding EGFP, dnLEF-IRES-EGFP, caß-catenin-IRES-EGFP or caLEF-IRES-EGFP. After 2 weeks in culture, the explants were fixed and frozen-sectioned. Immunohistochemistry used anti-GFP antibody, and DAPI was used to visualize nuclei. Bars, 10 µm (left panels); 50 µm (right panels). (B) Subretinal localization of EGFP-positive virus-infected cells was examined in several sections. More than 100 cells of each sample were counted and each set of experiments was conducted in triplicate. The percentage of the total EGFP-positive cell number at each location is shown. ONL, outer nuclear layer; INL, inner nuclear layer; GCL, ganglion cell layer. (C) Neurite length distribution of the retinal cells expressing EGFP, dnLEF-EGFP, caß-catenin-EGFP or caLEF-EGFP. Retinal explants were prepared from E17.5 mouse embryos and infected with retrovirus encoding EGFP, dnLEF-IRES-EGFP, caß-catenin-IRES-EGFP or caLEF-IRES-EGFP. After 3 days of culture, cells were disaggregated, replated into chamber slides and cultured for a further 11 days. Cells were then stained with anti-GS and anti-GFP antibodies and the neurite length of more than 45 cells of GS-negative/GFP-positive neural cells of each samples was measured. (D) Average neurite length from Fig. 1C is shown in the left panel. Populations of cells with neurite length less than 10 µm (middle panel) and more than 30 µm (right panel) in Fig. 1C are compared. More than 50 cells of each sample were measured and each set of experiments was conducted in triplicate. Error bars represent s.e.m. ^*P<0.05; ^**P<0.01.