Fig. 1: Neuronal GABAergic signal is impaired in both SMAΔ7 mice, SM CRTX and primary cortical cultures.
From: Changes in the cortical GABAergic inhibitory system in a Spinal Muscular Atrophy mouse model
a Representative immunofluorescence (IF) images of neurons co-labelled for GABA (green) and MAP2 (red) in WT and SMA mice SM CRTX at P12. Nuclei are DAPI-stained (blue). Scale bar: 30 µm. b Analysis of GABA-immunopositive profiles density in WT and SMA SM CRTX (Student’s t-test, *p < 0.05; each dot represents the mean value from an individual animal, violin plots show the distribution of these values across animals within each group, including median and variability; WT mice: n = 4; SMA mice: n = 5). c Percentage of SMA GABA + SM CRTX neurons (Data are presented as mean ± SEM, Student’s t-test, *p < 0.05; WT and SMA mice: n = 6). d Representative immunofluorescence (IF) images of coronal brain sections co-labelled for GABA (green) and MAP2 (red) in WT and SMA mice SM CRTX. Nuclei are DAPI-stained (blue) from WT and SMA mice. Brain atlas outlines are superimposed (cyan) to highlight the primary motor (M1, orange) and somatosensory (S1, magenta) cortical areas. Scale bar: 50 µm. Higher-magnification views of the boxed regions show M1 (a′, b′) and S1 (a″, b″) cortical areas in WT and SMA mice, respectively. GABA immunoreactivity (green) is shown within cortical layers [supragranular (SG), granular (G), and infragranular (IG)]. Quantification of GABA⁺ cell density (%) in M1 and S1 regions is reported in the right panel, comparing SMA mice with WT controls (data are expressed as mean ± SEM and normalized to WT mean, referred to as control; Student’s t-test, *p < 0.05; WT and SMA mice: n = 3). e Representative widefield (left) and confocal (right) immunofluorescence images of WT and SMA primary cortical neurons at DIV 15. Scale bar: 200 and 30 µm. f Quantification of GABA mean intensity in MAP2+ neurons among WT and SMA cortical cells; analyses included at least 100 cells from six independent cultures for each group. Each dot on the graph represents an individual cell; violin plots show the distribution of these values within each group, including median and variability (Mann-Whitney test, **p < 0.01; WT and SMA mice: n = 6 primary cell co-cultures).
