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

Figure 3

α-syn oligomerization and phosphorylation in neurons. (a) Immunocytochemical analysis of α-syn expression in neurons treated with NS or PD plasma and α-syn or left untreated. CTL: control neurons without treatment; α-syn/NS/PD: neurons treated with α-syn/NS plasma/PD plasma only; NS + α-syn or PD + α-syn: neurons treated α-syn plus NS or PD plasma. (b) Western blot analysis of total α-syn in the cytosol of neurons. α-syn oligomer levels were elevated only in neurons treated with α-syn plus PD plasma and were resistant to Triton X-100 and SDS. (c) Western blot analysis of cytosolic pS-α-syn in neurons. High levels of oligomeric pS-α-syn were detected in neurons treated with α-syn plus PD plasma, while no monomeric pS-α-syn was detected. ((d), (e)) Oligomeric and pS-α-syn detection by ELISA. Levels of both species were elevated in neurons treated with α-syn plus PD plasma (/group; one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc test). , versus control group; versus α-syn + NS group.

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