Figure 1.

Nestin mRNA-positive cells in MS/DBB are functional neurons. A. Agarose gel analysis of the sc-RT-PCR products obtained from a single MS/DBB cell. The only PCR-generated fragment was nestin. B. Whole cell current of the same cell depolarized from -60 mV to 10 mV in voltage-clamp mode showed characteristic of functional neurons. C. The cell shows typical neural action potential when depolarized to the threshold potential. D. A sustained depolarizing current (1000 ms) elicits a train of repetitive action potentials. The membrane responses were elicited using positive currents of 0.2 nA from -60 mV in panel C and D.