Fig. 1

MPLA treatment increases the phagocytic activity of microglia. a Murine microglia were exposed to various treatments and phagocytic activity was measured by the incorporation of fluorescent beads. At baseline (vehicle treatment) both MPLA and LPS significantly increased the phagocytosis. Pre-exposure to fibrils of α-syn (αSyn (PF) treatment) further elevated the phagocytic activity of microglia treated with MPLA or LPS, whereas monomeric soluble α-syn (αSyn (sol) treatment) had no such effect. Data are means ± SEM, n = 4 per group. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 compared to control. ^## p < 0.01, ^### p < 0.001. b Confocal image demonstrates the localization of human α-syn in the cytoplasm of Iba-1 positive microglial cell in a PLP-α-syn mouse treated with MPLA. Z-stack analysis showed more frequent detection of microglial cells incorporating α-syn after MPLA treatmentas compared to vehicle treated PLP-α-syn mice by Fischer’s exact test (***p < 0.001)