Figure 3
From: Absence of dopaminergic neuronal degeneration and oxidative damage in aged DJ-1-deficient mice
No DA neuron terminal loss and normal dopamine content in the striatum in aged DJ-1 -/- mice. (A and B) The absence of the expression of DJ-1 protein in the striatum in DJ-1-/- mice is indicated by the presence of DJ-1 immunoreactivity in the striatum of wild-type controls and the absence of the immunoreactivity in DJ-1-/- mice. (C and D) Similar TH staining in the striatum of DJ-1-/- mice and wild-type controls at the age of 18–19 months indicating no DA neuron terminal loss in DJ-1-/- mice. (E-H) Similar GFAP staining in the striatum of DJ-1-/- mice and wild-type controls suggesting that there is no inflammatory or neurodegenerative changes in DJ-1-/- mice. Panels (G, H) indicate enlarged view of panels (E, F), respectively. Scale bars; A-H, 0.1 mm.(I) Western analysis of DJ-1, TH, and α-tubulin proteins in the striatum of aged DJ-1-/- brains and wild-type controls at the age of 18–20 months. The value is normalized to that of α-tubulin. The level of TH proteins in brains of wild-type mice is set at 1.00 (TH: -/-; 1.03 ± 0.12, p > 0.05) (n = 4 per genotype). (J) Similar striatal content of dopamine in DJ-1-/- mice and wild-type controls at the age of 24–27 months (+/+: 9.8 ± 0.6, n = 7, -/-: 10.5 ± 0.4, n = 5, p > 0.05). All data are expressed as mean ± SEM.