Skip to main content
. 2014 Feb 20;9(2):e89076. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089076

Figure 3. Semiquantification of the optical densities of striatal dopamine nerve terminals in rats treated with vehicle or ZNS.

Figure 3

Rats were unilaterally injected with rAAV-A53T α-synuclein (A, C) or rAAV-GFP (B, D). The sections were immunostained with antibody for TH (A, B) or DAT (C, D). In rats injected with rAAV-A53T α-synuclein (A, C), photomicrographs show representative immunostainings of the injected and uninjected sides of the substantia nigra at 2 weeks after injection (left panels), and those of the injected sides at 4 weeks (middle panels) and 8 weeks (right panels) after injection. In rats injected with rAAV-GFP (B, D), photomicrographs show representative immunostainings of the injected and uninjected sides of the substantia nigra at 4 weeks (left panels) and 8 weeks (right panels) after injection. Scale bars, 1.0 mm. (A–D) Graphs show semiquantitative analysis of striatal TH or DAT-positive fibers. As compared with the vehicle group, ZNS significantly suppressed loss of striatal TH-positive fibers at 4 weeks (P<0.001) and 8 weeks (P = 0.004) after rAAV-A53T α-synuclein injection. Decreased densities of DAT-positive fibers were significantly suppressed in the ZNS group at 4 weeks (P<0.001) and 8 weeks (P<0.001) after viral injection. The open bars illustrate the vehicle group and the black bars illustrate the ZNS group. Data represent the mean ± SD and P-values were estimated by two-way ANOVA, followed by a Bonferroni’s post hoc test (*P<0.05).