Figure 5

Elevated ER stress in the CNS of tgWT and tgMT mice. (a, b) Expression of ER stress and inflammation indicators in the spinal cord (a) and brain (b) was assessed by quantitative RT-PCR. The relative expression levels in tgWT and tgMT mice were normalized to their respective non-transgenic littermates (expression level set as 1). N=4 pairs for 7-month-old tgWT and littermate controls, and 4 pairs for tgMT and littermate controls of the same age. (c) Expression of ER-stress-mediating proteins in the spinal cords of 7-month-old tgWT (N=5) and tgMT (N=4) mice. (d) Quantification of WBs after normalization to actin (arbitrary unit, a.u.). No significant difference in Bip, ATF4, ATF6 and GFAP levels was found in the spinal cord of tgWT and tgMT mice. (e) Immunostaining of GFAP in the spinal cord cross-sections of 7-month-old tgWT and tgMT mice. Signals were mainly from the fibers in the white matter (arrows), and to a much lesser extent, from astrocytes in the gray matter (arrowheads). TgWT and tgMT mouse spinal cords showed similar GFAP expression. Scale bars=500 μm. (f) Fluorescence intensity of GFAP staining showed a comparable level between tgWT and tgMT mice. (g) WBs showed similar GFAP expression in the spinal cord of tgWT and tgMT mice. COX, cyclooxygenase; IL, interleukin; iNOs, inducible nitric oxide synthase; TNF, tumor necrosis factor