Fig. 2.
Subfibrillar and fibrillar prion strains are internalized and transported from the axon terminal to the soma. a Representative western blot shows subfibrillar (22L, RML) or fibrillar (87V, mCWD) prion internalization over time. Mean and SE from four (22L, 87V) or three (RML, mCWD) independent experiments. b Schematic of the microfluidic chamber in which the cells bodies reside in a large chamber and axons grow through fine grooves into side chambers where prions are introduced. c RT-QuIC analysis reveals PrPSc in the soma of neurons whose axons were exposed to subfibrillar (22L) or fibrillar (87V) prions, but not uninfected WT brain (WT). Shown are the mean and SE thioflavin T fluorescence signal for the positive cell body samples collected two weeks after prion exposure (4 of 8 positive samples per strain). The 87V prions were detected by RT-QuIC at slightly earlier times, which is not indicative of differences in the prion levels. Dashed line represents the threshold for positivity (see Methods)