Fig. 7

MICAL1 is upregulated in the brain of Tauopathy patients. a Western blots of homogenates from hippocampal samples of six Pick’s disease (PiD), five Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and five Frontotemporal Dementia (FT) patients as well as three control subjects (C) whose age is indicated by the respective numbers. Blots were probed for MICAL1 and Actin. Quantifications are shown on the right in which levels of the control samples were normalized using the Actin loading control and their ratio was fixed to 1. The bars represent the mean ± SEM relative levels of MICAL1 at the given hippocampal sample over that of MICAL1 in controls. Stars indicate significantly increased MICAL1 levels in disease patients. b Representative sections from the hippocampi of patient subjects with AD at 40 × magnification stained for Tau (AT8 antibody) and MICAL1. The merged sections indicate no colocalization between MICAL1 and Tau in flame-shaped neurofibrillary tangles. c Representative sections from the hippocampi of patient subjects with PiD at 40 × and 60 × magnification stained for Tau (AT8 antibody) and MICAL1. White arrows indicate globular Pick bodies. The merged sections indicate prominent colocalization between MICAL1 and Tau in spherical Pick bodies. d Mean PCC values ± SEM indicate high degree of colocalization between Tau and MICAL1 in PiD samples (PCC values close to 1) but no colocalization in AD samples (PCC values close to zero)