FIGURE 2.

The neurotoxic effect of HIV and gp120 is reduced in p75NTR^{– /–} neurons. Cortical neurons from WT and p75NTR^{– /–} mice were exposed to gp120_IIIB (5 nM), HIV_IIIB (1.5 ng/ml of p24), or proBDNF (10 nM) for 24 h. Boiled inactivated gp120 or HIV (IIIB) were used as controls. Neuronal cell death was determined by counting the number of Hoechst/PI positive cells, as described in Section “Materials and Methods.” Data expressed as % of cell viability are the mean ± SEM of eight independent coverslips from four independent culture preparations; coverslip values were averaged from three random fields. ^∗∗p < 0.01, ^∗∗∗p < 0.001 vs. WT control, ^p < 0.05 vs. WT gp120_IIIB, ^ ^ ^p < 0.01 vs. WT HIV_IIIB or proBDNF. Two-way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD.