Fig. 3. Expression of antisense LIFRß mRNA in cultured E7 sympathetic neurons exhibit decreased responsiveness to CNTF. Primary cultures of sympathetic neurons co-transfected with pcDNA-lacZ in combination with either sense or antisense expression vectors or nontransfected control cultures were treated with CNTF and analyzed for VIP expression. Co-transfected cells were identified by immunostaining for ß-galactosidase, and the proportion of transfected cells immunoreactive for VIP was determined. Under control (dark gray) and sense (gray) treated conditions, CNTF induces VIP-immunoreactivity in about 50% of the neurons. Neurons transfected with LIFRß antisense mRNA exhibited a significantly reduced response to CNTF as compared with either non-transfected or sense-transfected cells. Data represent the mean±s.d. of several independent experiments as indicated by the numbers. P<0.001; (Student’s t-test, pairwise comparison between sense and antisense experiments).