Fig. 4: Linking acetylated α-Tubulin redistribution with α-Synuclein pathology in human brain.

a–c’ Four categories of neurons are distinguishable in the substantia nigra (a N = 3, 574 neurons), nucleus basalis of Meynert (b N = 3, 154 neurons) and entorhinal cortex (c N = 3, 1173 neurons) of PD patients: neurons exclusively positive for acetylated α-Tubulin (white arrow), neurons containing α-Synuclein accumulated as Lewy bodies (black arrowheads), neurons positive for both acetylated α-Tubulin and α-Synuclein (black arrow) and neurons lacking staining (asterisk). Scale bar, 100 μm. Insets show 1.5 x magnification of the representative neuronal cell bodies for the four categories. Pie charts (a’–c’) showing cell percentages for each category in the three regions. d, e In controls, acetylated α-Tubulin is present in fibres (d–d’) and α-Synuclein shows synaptic staining (d, d”). In PD samples, acetylated α-Tubulin accumulates in neuronal cell bodies and in few α-Synuclein positive aggregates (e–e”, white arrow). Nuclei are counterstained with Hoechst. Scale bar, 25 μm. Ac tub acetylated α-Tubulin; LB α-Synuclein positive-Lewy bodies.