Figure 4.

Rescue of striatal neurons from DA toxicity by lentiviral mCII components, Fp and Ip. Effects of DA on mCII Ip and Fp subunit expression in neurons plated for 3 weeks in culture. Cultures were exposed to 300 µm DA for 24 h, 2 weeks after transduction with lentiviral vectors coding Ip (lenti-Ip) or Fp (lenti-Fp) proteins or vehicle alone. (A) Levels of Ip and Fp assessed by western blot analysis reveal that the overexpression of mCII subunits compensates for the loss induced by DA. (B and C) Evaluation of the protective effects of Ip and Fp overexpression using the LDH assay (B) and counts of TUNEL-positive cells by FACS (C). Note that the overexpression of Ip and Fp mCII subunits is neuroprotective. *P < 0.0001; ANOVA and Fisher's post-hoc PLSD test.