Figure 9

Increased CRMP2 expression and phosphorylation in the hippocampus of patients with HIV encephalitis. Forty μm-thick vibratome sections from the hippocampus of HIV+ control and HIV encephalitis (HIVE) patients were processed for immunolabeling analysis with antibodies against CRMP2 and pSer522-CRMP2 (pSer-CRMP2). Low power images show overall immunoreactivity throughout the hippocampus, including the CA1-4 regions, the dentate gyrus (DG) and the subgranular zone (SGZ), and high power images show more detail of the DG including the SGZ and granular cell layer (GCL). (A-D) Patterns of total CRMP2 immunoreactivity in the hippocampus from representative HIV+ non-encephalitis (control) and HIVE brains at low (A, C) and high (B, D) power. Numerous intensely immunoreactive cell profiles were detected in the SGZ (arrows), particularly in the brains of HIVE patients. (E) Semi-quantitative image analysis of CRMP2 immunoreactivity in the hippocampal DG of HIV patients. (F-I) Patterns of pSer-CRMP2 immunoreactivity in the hippocampus from representative HIV+ non-encephalitis (control) and HIVE brains at low (F, H) and high (G, I) power. (J) Semi-quantitative image analysis of pSer-CRMP2 immunoreactivity in the hippocampal DG of HIV patients. * p < 0.05 compared to HIV+ controls by unpaired two-tailed Student's t-test (n = 8 per group). Scale bar = 200 μm (A,C,F,H); 30 μm (B,D,G,I).