Figure 5

Ayahuasca β-carboline alkaloids promote astrogliogenesis. Neurospheres derived from the adult subgranular (SGZ) and subventricular (SVZ) zone were cultured in the presence of harmol, harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroharmine (THH). After 7 days neurospheres were adhered on coated coverslips and allowed to differentiate for 3 days in the presence of alkaloids at 1 µM. (a) Neurosphere immunofluorescence images showing in green the expression of CNPase (oligodendrocyte marker) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP, red) that stains astrocytes. SVZ-derived neurospheres are shown in two panels showing the central part of the neurosphere (left) and the distal migration site (right). Single images from SGZ-derived neurospheres show the distal part of the neurosphere. DAPI was used for nuclear staining. Scale bar = 50 μm. (b) Representative Western blots of CNPase and GFAP. Quantification analyses are also shown. Results are the mean ± SD of the quantification of at least three independent experiments corresponding to four different cellular pools. The left side of the image shows results for the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the brain. The right side of the image shows results for he subgranular zone of the hippocampus (SGZ). *p ≤ 0.05; **p ≤ 0.01 indicate significant results in the post-hoc pair-wise comparisons (Bonferroni) versus non-treated (basal) cultures.