Figure 9.

Lovastatin treatment partially prevents cultured cells from α-syn oligomer accumulation and cell death elicited by nutrient deprivation. RA-elicited differentiated 3D5 cells with TetOff induction for 12 days were subjected to treatment with DMSO [regarded as control (Con)], 5 µM lovastatin (LVT), DMSO plus nutrient deprivation, or 5 µM LVT plus nutrient deprivation (LVT/ND) for 24 h. (A) Cell lysates were probed with antibodies to α-syn, cleaved caspase 3 and β-actin. Molecular weight standards were included as references. (B–D) Bar graphs summarized quantitative immunoblot analysis of various proteins from three independent experiments with normalization against β-actin immunoreactivities. The average values of Con group were set as 100%. (E) Calcein assay of duplicated cultures showed that LVT treatment can partially prevent the cell loss caused by nutrient deprivation. (F) Amplex Red-based cholesterol assay showed that cholesterol levels in cells with or without nutrient deprivation were significantly reduced upon LVT pre-treatment. Error bars represent standard error of the mean (* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, comparing to Con; # p < 0.05, ## p < 0.01, comparing subsets linked by line). The results are representative of three independent experiments.