Fig. 1

A1-astrocytes are highly abundant in human prion diseases and a prion mouse model. a Representative immunofluorescence staining with the A1-astrocyte marker C3d showed high abundance of A1 astrocytes in different brain regions in terminally prion diseased mice (n = 3 individual animals per group), (age matched control mice; n = 3); red = C3d; blue = DAPI; scale bar: 25 μm. b Representative frontal cortex sections of control or sCJD individuals showed that GBP2-positive A1-astrocytes can be only detected in human prion disease brains. GBP2-signal co-localize with GFAP-positive astrocytes; (CJD cases; n = 5), (age and gender matched control; n = 5); red = GBP2; green = GFAP; scale bar: 50 μm. c Representative fluorescence staining of human frontal cortex brain sections show that Iba1-positive microglia do not co-localize with GBP2, but keep close contact with GBP2⁺ astrocytes (see high magnification insert); GFAP (green) or Iba1 (green) and GBP2 (red); scale bar: 50 μm, close up: 20 μm