Figure 8

Influence of QC overexpression on neuropathology. Immunohistochemical staining of 6 month old double tg E8-hQC mice revealed hQC dependent increase of GFAP reactivity of activated astroglia in the striatum (A). Staining of 6 month old E8-hQC mice revealed hQC dependent decrease of DARPP-32 reactivity of striatal neuropil (B). These neuroinflammatory and degenerative processes resulted in hQC dependent decrease of NeuN positive cells demonstrating striatal cell loss beginning in at the age of 6 months (C). Quantification of neuronal numbers in a defined region of interest (ROI) in the basolateral striatum (D) of E8-hQC mice revealed a neuronal loss of 21% for hom/wt, 26% for hom/het, and 45% for hom/hom (E); neuronal numbers expressed as percentage of wt; data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by Newman-Keuls post-hoc test and represent means ± SEM; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001 n = 5–8 animals per genotype.