5 hr followed by three rinses in PBS and mounting in Vectashield. Cells were imaged at 20 × on a Zeiss Axio Imager.M1 microscope. All images were imported into Adobe Photoshop and thresholded. ET33-Cre-expressing cells were identified by their tdTomato expression. The somas of Cre-expressing cells were outlined Cisplatin and the average
fluorescence intensity of the VGLUT2 signal within the traced area was measured by using the histogram function. VGLUT2 fluorescence intensity was normalized to soma size for each cell. Data were compared by a Student’s t test. One retina was removed on either P0 or P5 and recordings were performed on P5 or P10, respectively. Brain sections (325 μm) containing the optic tract and dLGN were acutely prepared as previously described (Chen and Regehr, 2000, Koch and Ullian, 2010 and Bickford et al., 2010). Sectioning
was performed in oxygenated cutting solution consisting of 78.3 mM NaCl, 23.0 mM NaHCO3, 23.0 mM dextrose, 33.8 mM choline chloride, 2.3 mM KCl, 1.1 mM NaH2PO4, 6.4 mM MgCl2, and 0.45 mM CaCl2. Brains were incubated for 25 min at 34°C in cutting solution and then transferred to oxygenated ACSF consisting of 125.0 mM NaCl, 25.0 mM NaHCO3, 25.0 mM dextrose, 2.5 mM KCl, 1.25 mM NaH2PO4, 2.0 mM CaCl2, and 1.0 MgCl2 × 6H20. Recordings were made at room temperature. Whole-cell voltage-clamp recordings of dLGN neurons were obtained by using 2.5–3.5 MOhm patch electrodes containing internal solution (35 mM CsF, 100 mM CsCl, 10 mM EGTA, and 10 mM HEPES). Inhibitory inputs were blocked with 20 μM bicuculline
methobromide (Tocris). Recordings were sampled at 10–20 kHz and filtered at Proteases inhibitor 1 kHz. Access resistance was monitored and adjusted to 4–9 MOhms after 70% compensation. A concentric bipolar stimulating electrode was placed just touching the surface of the optic tract next to the ventral LGN and a 1 ms stimulus was delivered every 30 s. A 40 μA stimulus was used because this intensity Non-specific serine/threonine protein kinase evoked action potentials from many RGC axons, typically resulting in maximal postsynaptic responses in control cells. NMDAR-mediated current amplitudes were measured at +40 mV and at a time when the AMPAR-mediated currents no longer contributed to the response, ∼25 ms after the onset of the EPSC. Synaptic currents were analyzed by using Igor Pro, Microsoft Excel, and GraphPad Prism programs. All experiments and analyses were done blind to genotype. Statistical comparisons were made by using a Student’s unpaired t test unless otherwise stated. Mice were anesthetized with isoflurane and their eyelids were gently separated with tweezers. Eyes were numbed with proparacaine and injected with 1.0–2.0 μL of CTb-488 or CTb-594 (0.5% in sterile saline), 1.0 μl for P3 mice, 1.5 μl for P9 mice, and 2.0 μl for P27 mice. Confocal images of dLGN sections were acquired on an Axiovert 200 microscope and Pascal acquisition software.