Figure 5.

Lovastatin treatment affects surface α4 nAChR internalization differentially in soma and neurites. Cultured hippocampal neurons were treated with 50 nM lovastatin for 14 days or left untreated (control). At the end of the incubation, neurons were washed, labeled with mAb-299 for 1 h at 4 °C, and then transferred to an incubation bath at 37 °C for 30 min. After the incubation, neurons were fixed and α4 nAChRs remaining at the surface were revealed by labeling with Alexa Fluor⁵⁵⁵-secondary antibody. Fluorescence was quantified by fluorescence microscopy in soma (a,b) and neurites (c,d) and expressed in arbitrary units (AU) or normalized against the fluorescence obtained without incubation at 37 °C (0 min). Data represent the mean ± SD from at least three independent experiments. * p ˂ 0.01.