Figure 3.

Alterations in the protein level of the glial‐expressed growth factor FGF2 and its association with glial protein markers. FGF2 was significantly increased in the PD hippocampus (A) and showed morphology consistent with neurons and glia in controls (B; scale bar = 25 μm) and PD cases (C; scale bar = 25 μm). Double immunofluorescence staining confirmed that FGF2 co‐localized mainly with markers of microglia [ionised calcium binding adaptor 1 (Iba1); D; scale bar = 10 μm] and astrocytes [glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP); E; scale bar = 25 μm]. Some staining was also seen in neurons (NeuN; F; scale bar = 10 μm). Western blotting analysis (G) demonstrated that levels of GFAP (P = 0.495), Iba1 (P = 0.154), activated microglia marker, human leukocyte antigen‐DR (HLA‐DR; P = 0.559) and total α‐synuclein (α‐syn; P = 0.32) did not differ between PD and age‐matched controls. However, levels of α‐synuclein phosphorylated at serine 129 (pS129 α‐syn) were significantly increased (P = 0.05) in the PD hippocampus. Levels of FGF2 protein were significantly associated with GFAP protein in both PD and controls (H; dashed line) and this association remained when the PD cohort was analysed separately (H; grey line). Data represented as individual values with overlying mean ± SEM.