Nucleofection of Rat Pheochromocytoma PC-12 Cells with Human Mutated Beta-Amyloid Precursor Protein Gene (APP-sw) Leads to Reduced Viability, Autophagy-Like Process, and Increased Expression and Secretion of Beta Amyloid

Figure 2

Micrographs (TEM) show ultrastructure of PC-12 cells nucleofected with GFP ((a)–(c)), or GFP + APP-wt ((d)–(f)), or GFP + APP-sw ((g)–(i)). Symptoms of autophagy: black arrows indicate multilamellar bodies and black arrowheads indicate autophagosomes, multivesicular bodies, and lysosomes. Abnormal autophagy in GFP + APP-sw-nucleofected cells is manifested by buildup of autophagosomes with double membrane (g) and multivesicular bodies (h); large autophagosome with double membrane contains smaller autophagosomes (i) and there is scarce evidence for single-membrane autolysosomes. Bars represent 100 μm.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)

(i)