Loss of Sigma-1 Receptor Chaperone Promotes Astrocytosis and Enhances the Nrf2 Antioxidant Defense

Figure 1

Pronounced astrocyte populations are observed in Sig-1R KO mixed neuronal-glial cultures. The whole brains of (a) E18 fetuses () from Sig-1R WT or KO mice were collected and homogenized for GFAP immunoblotting. (b) Primary neuronal-glial cultures were isolated from Sig-1R WT or KO E18 fetuses. Cell lysates were harvested on DIV 11 for GFAP immunoblotting. Deficiency of the Sig-1R induced more GFAP expression in the fetus as well as in the primary neuronal-glial cultures. (c) Isolated mixed neuronal-glial cultures from Sig-1R WT or KO E18 fetuses were seeded at a density of 5 × 10⁴ cells per well and stained with the neuron and astrocyte markers MAP2 (green) and GFAP (red), respectively, on DIV 11. Sig-1R KO mixed neuronal-glial cultures have more GFAP-positive astrocytes. In the graph, GFAP was normalized to the internal control. The GFAP expression level in the WT was normalized to 1. Error bar indicates SEM. , , t-test.

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