Fig. 2

Identification of the midbrain dopamine neuron and Parkinson’ disease markers at late stages (5 months) of differentiation for NAS and AST cells. a After 5 months of differentiation, the immunostaining for MAP2, FOXA2, and Nurr1 show both NAS- and AST-derived dopaminergic neurons express these proteins. There is a noticeable increase in PRK8 immunostaining in AST-derived dopaminergic neurons. Scale bar: 100 μm. The immunostainings were performed in parallel via a blinded experimental design. b Histograms showing fold changes in the mRNA expression of selected genes in hiPSC-derived dopamine neurons with SNCA Triplication (AST, n = 6 cultures) compared to hiPSC-derived dopamine neurons with normal SNCA copy number (NAS, n = 6 cultures). GAPDH, 18S, and ACTB were chosen as housekeeping genes. Data expressed as means ± SEM and analyzed by an unpaired t-test. Differences in the data were considered significant if p < 0.05. The unpaired t-tests show no significant differences in LMX1A, MSX1, FOXA2, EN1, LMX1B, PAX2, and PAX5 mRNA expression between the two experimental groups, significant increases in SNCA and DRD2 mRNA expression in the AST group compared to the NAS group, and significant decreases in OTX2, GLI1, TH, SLC6A3, KCNJ6, and NR4A2 mRNA expression in the AST group compared to the NAS group. ns = not significant, * = significant when p < 0.05, and ** = significant when p < 0.01