Figure 5.

Enforced re-expression of the CB₁ receptor rescues BDNF expression in the striata of R6/2 mice. R6/2 mice (3.5–4 weeks old) and WT littermates were injected stereotactically into the dorsolateral striatum with a recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) encoding HA-tagged CB₁ receptor or the empty vector as control (n=10–12 animals per group). At week 8 of age, animals were killed for histological and qPCR analyses in the striatum. (a) CB₁ receptor immunoreactivity (relative values of CB₁ receptor-positive area/total cell nuclei). Slices from the dorsolateral striatum of CB₁^−/− mice⁷⁰ were used as control of staining specificity. Representative images are shown. (b) BDNF immunoreactivity (relative values of BDNF-positive area/total cell nuclei). Slices from the dorsolateral striatum of neuron-specific, neurofilament L-conditional BDNF knockout (Bdnf^{floxed/-;Nefl-Cre/+}) mice (generated at Michael Sendtner's laboratory, University of Würzburg, Germany) were used as control of staining specificity. Representative images are shown. (c) Levels of total BDNF transcripts. (d) Levels of exon IV-containing BDNF transcripts. Data were analyzed using unpaired Student's t-test. *P<0.05 and **P<0.01 from the corresponding WT-empty group; ^##P<0.01 from the corresponding R6/2-empty group