Disruption of Laminin β2 Chain Production Causes Alterations in Morphology and Function in the CNS

This work was supported by funds provided by Boston College (W.J.B., G.W.B.), Tufts University and the National Eye Institute (D.D.H.), and the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the E. Matilda Ziegler Foundation (W.J.B.). Some of this work was supported by the core facilities of the Cutaneous Biology Research Center (CBRC) under a Massachusetts General Hospital–Shiseido Co., Ltd. agreement. We thank Josh Sanes for the generous gift of the founder mice for our β2 knock-out colony, Colin Barnstable for the gift of the antibody against rhodopsin; Josh Sanes and Jeff Miner for the gift of the antibody against the laminin α4 chain, and Bob Burgeson and Marie-France Champliaud for the gift of the antibody against the laminin γ3 chain. W.J.B. thanks Bob Burgeson for encouragement and generosity during his leave of absence at the CBRC.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. William J. Brunken, Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Building 149, 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129. E-mail: bill.brunken{at}cbrc2.mgh.harvard.edu.