Fig. 7

Restoring expression of Mef2c rescues functional loss of cited3 and prevents cell death.

Coinjection of mouse Mef2c RNA rescues the morphological phenotypes (A–C) and the reduction in the expression of myosin heavy chain (15^th–18^th somites) (D–F) in the cited3 MO-injected embryos. Coinjection of mouse Mef2c RNA also reduced the number of apoptotic muscle cells in cited3 MO-injected embryos. (H,K,N) The number of apoptotic muscle cells are increased in cited3 MO-injected embryos and it was restored to normal levels by the coinjection of mouse Mef2c RNA (as seen in I,L,O) as compared to control MO injected embryos (G,J,M). (P) Quantification of the apoptotic cells revealed that mouse Mef2c RNA significantly prevented the cell death in muscle cells of embryos that are coinjected with cited3 MO. These are average values from 97 sections from trunk and tail of 5–10 embryos from three different experiments. Values were normalized compared to cited3 morphant values. Scale bars: 100 μm in A and 25 μm in E,G.