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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 May 29.
Published in final edited form as: J Neurosci. 2012 Jan 18;32(3):946–952. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3830-11.2012

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Uptake of desialylated neurons by microglia. Microglia transduced with GFP (GFP + microglia) were cocultured with normal (untreated control) or sialidase-treated neurons, which were labeled with a red fluorescent membrane dye. Uptake of neuronal membranes into microglia was visualized by confocal microscopy and 3D-reconstruction. Uptake of apoptotic red fluorescent labeled material added to the coculture system served as positive control. A, After coculture of microglia with desialylated neurons fluorescent-marked neuronal membranes were detected inside the microglia. Scale bars, 20 μm, n = 3. B, C, Quantification of uptake. Few neuronal membranes were detected in microglia cocultured with normal neurons (untreated). Uptake of red fluorescent neuronal membranes into microglia was increased (***p = 4.8 × 10−5) after desialylation of the neuronal glycocalyx (sialidase treated). Few uptake of neuronal membranes was observed after blocking CD11b (***p = 7.27 × 10−6 vs + sialidase, ***p = 1.9 × 10−7 vs + sialidase + isotype Ab). n = 3.