The method of Pena and colleagues was applied

with minor modifications for use on floating sections (modifications listed in supporting Appendix S1). Sections were rinsed in Tris-buffered saline (TBS) and incubated with proteinase K for 5 min at 37°C, washed twice in TBS, then post-fixed for 5 min in 4% PFA. After washing once in 0.2% glycine/TBS Fulvestrant manufacturer and twice in TBS, sections were incubated in freshly prepared 1-methylimidazole solution, and then immersed in EDC fixative for 60 min at room temperature. Sections were washed again, followed by acetylation with triethanolamine and acetic anhydride, to inactivate endogenous alkaline phosphates and peroxidases. After 10 min of prehybridization, sections were incubated overnight in 4 pmol of LNA probe diluted in 200 μL hybridization buffer. A hybridization temperature of 20°C below selleck the Tm of the experimentally determined miRNA–LNA probe duplex was used. The LNA probes were synthesized and melting temperatures were experimentally determined in the Tuschl laboratory (Pena et al., 2009). After post-hybridization washes, the sections were treated with 3% hydrogen peroxide and washed, before being blocked and incubated with anti-DIG-AP for 1 h at room temperature (Roche). LNA probes were visualized with either the NBT/BCIP chromogen system or the Cy3 fluorescent system. The NBT/BCIP chromogen

system produces a purple reaction product in the presence of alkaline phosphatase (Roche). The TSA Plus Cy3 System (PerkinElmer Life Sciences) were used for observing dendritic staining and gives an orange-red fluorescent staining. Slides for fluorescent

staining were mounted with Prolong® Gold antifade reagent with DAPI (Invitrogen). At the end of electrophysiological recording rats were decapitated, and the dentate gyrus was rapidly dissected on ice and homogenized. Samples were boiled in sample buffer (Bio-Rad) and resolved on 10% or 8% SDS–PAGE minigels. Proteins were transferred to polyvinylidene difluoride membranes (Amersham Biosciences), which were then blocked, probed with antibodies and developed using chemiluminescence reagents (ECL, Amersham Biosciences). The blots were scanned using Gel DOC EQ (Bio-Rad), Amobarbital and band intensities were quantified using analytical software (Quantity one 1D analysis software; Bio-Rad). Proteins were normalized to α-tubulin. Significant differences between the treated and non-treated dentate gyrus were determined using Student’s t-test for dependent samples. The P-value for significance was 0.05. Antibodies used for Western blotting were as follows: anti-anti-methyl CpG-binding protein (MeCP2; 1 : 1000; Millipore Temecula, CA, USA), p250 GTPase-activating protein (p250GAP; 1 : 1000; gift of Takanobu Nakazawa, U. Tokyo, Japan), anti-Arc (C7) (1 : 500; Santa Cruz Biotechnology) and anti-α-tubulin (1 : 1000; Sigma).