Fig. 6

Scheduled feeding induces autophagy and lowers mHTT protein in the brain. a - d YAC128 and C6R mice as well as their wt littermates were subjected to 1 week of scheduled feeding and cortical tissue was compared to littermates with ad libitum access to food. a LC3-II levels in cortical lysates were determined by Western blotting. 2way-ANOVA genotype p = 0.0034, feeding p = 0.6776. b Cortical brain sections were stained for LC3 and confocal images were analyzed. 2way-ANOVA genotype p = 0.0815, feeding p = 0.0006. c Brain sections of the motor cortex were analyzed by EM, and autophagic vesicles (AV) surrounding the nuclei were counted in a blinded fashion. 2way-ANOVA genotype p = 0.0636, feeding p = 0.0006. d mHTT protein levels in cortical tissues were analyzed by Western blotting using antibody MAB2166. Representative images/blots and pooled quantification data with S.E.M. are shown, number of replicates is shown as insets. Statistical significance in a - c was determined by 2way-ANOVA with Bonferroni’s post-hoc correction, in D by two-tailed Student’s t-test. *: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001