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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Neuroendocrinol. 2016 Jul;28(7):10.1111/jne.12401. doi: 10.1111/jne.12401

Figure 2.

Figure 2

A: Digital images of paraffin sections of the ventral horn from cervical spinal cord stained with cresyl violet. Images show motoneurons with normal appearance (upper left), two intensely vacuolated cells (arrows) in an untreated Wobbler mouse (middle graph), and 4 motoneurons with normal appearance and 1 vacuolated motoneuron (arrow) in a progesterone treated Wobbler (upper right) Magnification: 600X. Lower graphs show electron microscopy of mitochondria from a motoneuron of a control mouse (lower left), an untreated Wobbler mouse (middle) and a Wobbler mouse receiving progesterone (PROG) (lower right). Motoneurons from Wobblers show massive vacuolation disrupting the outer, inner mitochondrial membranes and cristae (lower middle graph, asterisk). Motoneurons from PROG treated Wobblers show some mitochondria with a better conservation of the membrane system, including the cristae. Magnification: 50,000X. B: Activity of the mitochondrial respiratory enzyme complex I in the cervical region of the spinal cord of Wobbler mice and Wobbler mice receiving progesterone treatment. Progesterone increased complex I activity in cervical spinal cord from Wobblers (*** p<0.001 vs. Wobbler). Results were expressed as % of complex I activity of control. C: Content of nNOS and MnSOD in mitochondrial fractions from the cervical cord of Wobbler mice and Wobbler receiving PROG. Wobbler vacuolated mitochondria showed high expression of mitochondrial nNOS (nNOSmt) and low activity and expression of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD). Progesterone treatment in Wobblers significantly modified the high nNOSmt and the low MnSOD contents in mitochondria.