Fig. 2

Morphometrical analysis of cortical primary cultures from WT and Mecp2 null mouse E15 embryos. Neuronal primary cultures were used to compare morphological parameters between WT and Mecp2 null condition. a Neurite length was measured on cells stained with anti-Tuj1 antibody (ImageJ software). The image on the right shows a representative Tuj1 immunostaining (red) of cortical neurons counterstained with the nuclear marker DAPI (blue). The operator manually drew the dashed yellow line from the soma (yellow circle) to the end of the primary neurite in order to measure neurite length. b Total and primary branching was evaluated by Sholl analysis. Its internal algorithm creates a series of consecutive concentric circles centered on the soma of the neuron and counts the number of neurites crossing these circles (drawn on the right side). The bars represent means ± SEM from randomly selected fields for each cell culture condition (n = 8). * p < 0.05