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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Jan 12.
Published in final edited form as: Cell Metab. 2015 Nov 19;23(1):128–142. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2015.10.013

Figure 2. Striatal neurons of mice lacking SIRT3 exhibit hypersensitivity to degeneration in the 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NPA) model of Huntington’s disease.

Figure 2

(A) Modified Kaplan-Meier survival curves for Sirt3+/+ and Sirt3−/− mice. Mice (10 of each genotype) were given 3-NPA (30 mg/kg) once daily and mortality was quantified as described in Materials and Methods. (B and C) Results of rotarod testing. Before the initial 3-NPA injection, and after the 7th daily 3-NPA injection (30 mg/kg/day) motor performance was evaluated by measuring the latency to the first fall from the rotarod (B) and the total number of falls during a 300 second period (C). Values are mean ± SEM. (8–10 mice per group). (D and E) Confocal images showing a cerebral hemisphere in a coronal brain section immunostained with NeuN (green) to label neuronal nuclei (after 7 days of 3-NPA injection). The lower images show the border (white dotted line) between the area of neuronal damage and the relatively undamaged area. In Sirt3+/+ mice there were many NeuN+ cells in the area of cell loss compared to Sirt3−/− mice which exhibited nearly complete neuronal loss. The area demarcated by the red dotted line indicates the damaged area in the same images of Sirt3+/+ and Sirt3−/− mice, respectively as shown in the corresponding upper panel. Bars = 200 μm. Panel F shows higher magnification confocal images of brain sections stained with NeuN with a vertical column of 200 x 200 μm bins overlayed on the striatum. (F) Graph showing values for area of striatal cell loss determined from analysis of brain sections from Sirt3+/+ and Sirt3−/− mice (after 7 days of 3-NPA injection). Values are mean ± SEM (n = 5–6 mice per group). **P<0.01. (G) The number of neurons (NeuN+ cells) were counted in bins of a vertical strip of each tissue section as showed in (F) that spanned the dorsal-ventral axis of the striatum. Control Sirt3+/+ and Sirt3−/− mice were injected with PBS. Values are mean ± SEM. (n = 5–6 mice per group). *P<0.05, **P<0.01 compared to Sirt3+/+ mice treated with 3-NPA.