Fig. 1.

Brain-specific expression of HIV-Tat downregulates Shh signaling and BBB integrity determinants. a Immunoblots showing the expression of Shh, Gli-1, Occludin, and Smoothened in the brain lysates of Tat-positive and Tat-negative transgenic mice (n = 3 per group). Tubulin was used as internal control. b Quantification of Shh levels shown immunoblot in Fig. 1a relative to tubulin. c Expression of claudin-5 (n = 3 per group) and d Vcam1 was detected by performing RT-qPCR on RNA isolated from brains of Tat-positive and Tat-negative mice (n = 5 per group). Double asterisk indicates p < 0.01 and single asterisk indicates p < 0.05 using unpaired t test