Figure 1.

LCN2 upregulation in the brains of patients with PD and MPTP-treated mice. A, Western blot analyses of TH and LCN2 in SN tissues from patients with PD and age-matched controls. TH and LCN2 expression is significantly decreased and increased, respectively, in the SN of patients with PD compared with age-matched controls (p = 0.024 for TH; p = 0.039 for LCN2; t test; n = 7 for each group). B, LCN2 mRNA levels in the striatum and SN of mouse brains after MPTP treatment were determined by qRT-PCR (top) and traditional RT-PCR (bottom). LCN2 expression is increased significantly 24 h after MPTP administration compared with saline-treated controls. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 (one-way ANOVA; n = 3 for each group). C, Western blot analysis of LCN2 protein expression in the striatum (left) and SN (right) of mouse brains. Similar to the mRNA levels, the expression of LCN2 protein is significantly upregulated at 24 h compared with saline-treated controls. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 (one-way ANOVA; n = 3 for each group). D, Comparison of LCN2 mRNA levels in the SN, striatum (STR), hippocampus (HIP), and cerebral cortex (CC) after MPTP administration in mice. The upregulation of LCN2 mRNA is more apparent in the nigrostriatal DA system than the HIP and CC. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 versus saline-treated controls (one-way ANOVA; n = 3 for each group; ns, not significant).