Figure 3 | Laboratory Investigation

Figure 3

From: Effects of prednisolone on the dystrophin-associated proteins in the blood–brain barrier and skeletal muscle of dystrophic mdx mice

Figure 3

(a) Western blotting analysis of occludin, ZO-1, and GFAP, in the brain homogenates from, respectively, 10 control, mdx, and PDN mdx-treated mice. Mdx mice show lower expression of these proteins than the controls. The treatment with PDN restores the protein levels to that of the control animals. Quantification of the bands reveals a higher level of all proteins in PDN-treated mdx mouse brain compared with the mdx animals. The data are representative of three independent experiments from each group. (b) The immunoprecipitation of occludin and its phosphorylated form shows less phosphorylated occludin in mdx mice compared with the controls, and a reduction of phoshorylation in the mdx mice after PDN treatment. The occludin immunoprecipitate control experiment shows the same result as the western blot in panel a. (c) Real-time PCR evaluation shows a significant downregulation of occludin, ZO-1, and GFAP mRNA level in the mdx brain. Data are representative of three independent experiments from 10 animals for each group. Statistics: Student’s t-test comparing mdx mice with wild-type animals as result of the three independent experiments performed in triplicate; *P<0.01.

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