Fig. 1. (A) Epifluorescence photomicrograph of layer 2 and III pyramidal neurons showing stable labeling with GFP 24 hours after biolistic transfection with a GFP expression plasmid. (B) Z stack projection of a representative layer 2 pyramidal neuron after 48 hours in culture constructed from 10 confocal images of the neuron obtained at 10 µm intervals through the dendritic arbor. Scale bars: 50 µm. (C) RT-PCR analysis of HGF and MET expression in freshly prepared cortical slices and in cortical slices that had been cultured for 2 days. The PCR products for HGF, MET and GAPDH are indicated. No amplification products are observed in control reactions in which the reverse transcription (RT) step was omitted.