Fig. 3
From: Astrocytic uptake of neuronal corpses promotes cell-to-cell spreading of tau pathology
Astrocytes ingest dead cells and tau aggregates that are stored rather than degraded. a Astrocytes introduced to a culture of apoptotic neurons engulf and accumulate whole dead cells. Pink arrows indicate the condensed nuclei of dead neurons located inside an astrocyte. b Quantification of the total number of condensed nuclei, normalized to the total number of living astrocytes/field of view. c The proportion of astrocytes containing 0, 1–2, 3–4 or 5 + condensed nuclei at each time point/field of view. d Representative images (3d and 3d + 4d) of astrocytes exposed to unlabeled Tau-F, stained with the total tau antibody Tau-1. e Quantification of the Tau-1 signal, presented as IntDen/nuclei. f Representative images of astrocytes exposed to Cy3Tau-F for 24 h, 24 h + 6d and 7d. g Quantification of the Cy3-signal at 24 h and 24 h + 6d (degradation). h Quantification of the Cy3-signal at 24 h and 7d (accumulation) i The total number of small, medium and large tau deposits/live astrocytes at 24 h respective 24 h + 6d (j) and at 24 h respective 7d. Small deposits (0.164µm2- 16.4µm2), medium deposits (16.5µm2- 328µm2) large deposits (328 µm2-infinity). Scale bars = 50 µm. Error bars represent min/max values. T-test was used for the graphs in b, g and h and for the graph in e, Kruskal–wallis test was used. For all graphs in i-j, Mann–Whitney U test was used. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.005, ****p < 0.0001