Figure 2.

Moderate Viral Vector-Mediated α-syn Overexpression in the Rat Nigrostriatal System Does Not Decrease rat α-syn, BDNF, TH, or Nurr1 in the SN

Unilateral intranigral injections of recombinant rAAV2/5-α-syn results in human wild-type α-syn immunoreactivity in the nigrostriatal system. (A) Representative coronal sections demonstrating immmunoreactivity to human wild-type α-syn in the nigrostriatal hemisphere ipsilateral to injection. (B) Both hemispheres were labeled with antisera to tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). (C) Dual-label immunofluorescence identifies THir neurons of the SNpc that co-express human α-syn. A non-significant ∼10% loss of SNpc neurons was observed at 8 weeks following injection. (D) SN tissue punches analyzed using qPCR demonstrate human α-syn transgene (hu-Scna) in the ipsilateral, but not the contralateral, SN. (E–H) No differences between the ipsilateral and contralateral SN were detected for rat α-syn (rt-Snca) (E), BDNF (Bdnf) (F), TH (Th) (G), or Nurr1 (Nr4a2) (H). Scale bars, 25 μm.