Blood Plasma of Patients with Parkinson’s Disease Increases Alpha-Synuclein Aggregation and Neurotoxicity

Figure 1

Effects of NS and PD plasma on neuronal viability. Indicated concentrations of NS and PD plasma were added to the medium of primary neuron cultures, and cell viability was evaluated 14 d later. There was no difference in viability between neurons treated with NS and PD plasma. (b) and (c) Western blot analysis of α-syn expression in control and vector-infected neurons. All groups expressed the same level of endogenous α-syn (18 kDa). Neurons infected with the LV-GFP-α-syn vector expressed a 46 kDa GFP-α-syn fusion protein. -Actin was used as the loading control. The intensity of each band was normalized to that of -tubulin. All values represent mean ± SEM. versus control group. (d) Representative images of α-syn (red) and GFP (green) expression. Nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue). Scale bar = 50 µM. (e) Neurons were infected with LV-GFP-α-syn or LV-GFP-vector for 3 d and then cultured in complete medium containing FBS without or with NS or PD plasma. Viability was assessed after 14 d. Neurons overexpressing α-syn showed reduced viability compared with controls (CTL of LV-GFP-vector). There was no difference in cell viability between neurons treated with PD or NS plasma (/group; one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc test). versus LV-GFP control group.

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