Fig. 4

Gdf11 depletion increases overall proliferation, increases the number of neural progenitors, and decreases the number of newborn neurons in the adult hippocampus. A Representative immunohistochemical micrographs comparing the expression of Ki67, Sox2/GFAP, DCX/NeuN, and NeuN/BrdU in the DG of Gdf11^flox/flox and Gdf11^cKO mice. Scale bar = 20 μm. B Quantification of overall proliferation as measured by the number of Ki67⁺ cells per DG mm² (74% increase in Gdf11^cKO mice, n = 6 mice per group). C Quantification of the number of neural stem cells (25% nonsignificant increase in Gdf11^cKO mice, n = 7–10 mice per group) and the number of amplifying progenitors (87% increase, n = 7–10 per group). D Quantification of neuroblasts (DCX⁺, NeuN⁻) and immature neurons (DCX⁺, NeuN⁺), as measured by the proportion of DCX⁺ cells that colabeled with or without NeuN⁺ cells per DG mm² (% decrease in Gdf11^cKO mice, n = 7–8 mice per group). E Quantification of newborn neurons, as measured by the proportion of BrdU⁺ cells that colabeled with NeuN⁺ cells per DG mm² (50% decrease in Gdf11^cKO mice, n = 7–8 mice per group). See methods for details on cell classification scheme used. All statistics were calculated using two-tailed t-test.*p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01