Fig. 6

CD68 positive microglia and cytokine/chemokine levels in the in MSA mouse brain. a CD68 immunohistochemistry reveals the presence of abundant CD68⁺ activated microglia cells with C type or D type morphology in 5 months old MSA substantia nigra (arrows). At 15 months of age, robust microglial activation with CD68⁺ profiles (arrows) is detected in all regions of the MSA mouse brain and not so prominently in healthy controls. b Heat map comparing the log2 fold change in cytokine and chemokine expression in the brains of control and MSA mice at 5 and 15 months of age, as referenced to mice of the same genotype at 2 months of age, demonstrates the changes in the general neuroinflammatory profile with aging in the two genotypes. c, d, e As measured by an immunoassay, the protein levels of CCL3, CCL5 and M-CSF show an increase over time in the MSA mice, with significant higher levels than in the control animals at 15 months of age. (two-way ANOVA for CCL3 with factors genotype and age: effect of genotype F_1,18 = 16.57, p = 0.0007, effect of age F_2,18 = 13.36, p = 0.0003, interaction F_2,18 = 2.24, p = 0.1352; two-way ANOVA for CCL5 with factors age: effect of genotype F_1,18 = 1.35, p = 0.2611, effect of age F_2,18 = 10.81, p = 0.0008, interaction F_2,18 = 3.22, p = 0.064; two-way ANOVA for M-CSF with factors genotype: effect of genotype F_1,18 = 12.12, p = 0.0027, effect of age F_2,18 = 1.15, p = 0.3382, interaction F_2,18 = 4.56, p = 0.0249)