Table 2.

Probabilities of finding striatal cell types when targeting interneurons in acute brain slices

Lhx6-EGFPD1-D2-XFPWild type
FS21/5522/608/83
PLTS34/5523/608/83
Chol0/5510/6020/83
MSN0/555/6047/83
  • The Lhx6-EGFP line enables highly efficient targeting of striatal interneurons. All fluorescent neurons targeted in Lhx6-EGFP mice were GABAergic interneurons. In contrast, targeting nonfluorescent neurons in D1-D2-XFP mice yielded GABAergic interneurons 75% of the time. Note that <10% of nonfluorescent neurons in D1-D2-XFP mice were MSNs, suggesting highly efficient labeling of D1- and D2-MSNs by D1-Tmt and D2-GFP fluorescence, respectively. The last column shows the low success rate for targeting GABAergic interneurons using traditional methods in wild-type mice.