Figure 2
From: AhR-deficiency as a cause of demyelinating disease and inflammation
AhR deficiency leads to myelin alterations in the optic nerve. (A) Example of transverse ultrathin sections of the optic nerve of 8 weeks-old WT (left) and AhR KO (right) mice examined by transmission electron microscopy. Scale bars: 2 µm (top) or 0,5 µm (bottom). The yellow arrows indicate zones of disorganized myelin sheath. (B) Left: percentage of low-myelinated axons in the optic nerves of WT (n = 5, black bar) and AhR-KO (n = 5, blue bar) mice. Middle: Scatter plots depicting G-ratio (ratio of axon diameter/myelinated fiber diameter) of WT (n = 352 axons, black) and AhR KO (n = 243 axons, blue) mice. Right: Quantification of the G-ratio of optic nerves for each genotype (n = 5 WT and n = 5 AhR KO). (C) Quantitative Real-Time PCR analysis of three myelin genes (MAG, MBP, PLP) in the WT (black bars) and AhR-KO (blue bars) mice optic nerves (n = 18–19/group). mRNA levels were normalized to GAPDH mRNA expression. Middle: MAG protein in whole tissue lysates of WT and AhR-KO mice optic nerves was detected by Western Blot. Total actin was used as a loading control (n = 4/group). A full-length gel is included in the supplementary file (complete western blot). MAG: myelin associated-glycoprotein; MBP: myelin basic protein; PLP: proteolipid protein; GAPDH: glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (*p < 0.05).
