Figure 1

Expression of GPR40 in spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia (DRGs). (A, B) Representative western blots (left panels) performed with two different goat polyclonal anti-GPR40 antibodies (A: C-17; B Y-17). These western blot bands were abolished by the antibody preabsorption with respective antigen peptides (right panels). Each band in both blot was from whole lumbar spinal cord (L3-5) sample from a different animal. (C, D) Representative macrographs of naïve lumbar spinal cords and L4 DRGs labelled with C-17 (C) or Y-17 (D) antibody. These immunostaining patterns (C, left panels; D, top left) were disappeared by preabsorption (C, right panels; D, top right). Ventral horn of naïve spinal cord showed relatively intense immunoreactivities in several cells (D, middle left). The dorsal horn of naive spinal cord showed that GPR40-positive cells were broadly distributed (D, middle right). In naïve L4 DRG, GPR40 appeared to be expressed in neurons with no specificity regarding cell size (D, bottom left). Boxed area was enlarged in the bottom right panel. Scale bar = 200 μm (C and D top panels); 20 μm (D, middle panels and bottom right panel); 100 μm (D, bottom left panel).