Fig. 5
From: Astrocytic uptake of neuronal corpses promotes cell-to-cell spreading of tau pathology
Astrocytes transfer ingested material between each other in an efficient manner. a Time-lapse microscopy of Cy3Tau-F exposed astrocytes, demonstrating a transfer event of Cy3Tau-F aggregates (white arrow) from cell 1 to cell 2 via direct membrane contact. Scale bars = 20 µm. b Time-lapse microscopy of Cy3Tau-F exposed astrocytes illustrating TNTs with tau inclusions (white arrows) between two astrocytes. Scale bars = 20 µm. c Co-cultures of astrocytes exposed to Cy3Tau-F (donor cells, white star) and unexposed (acceptor cells, white arrow) labeled with Biotracker-488 (green) demonstrated rapid distribution of tau deposits between the astrocytes. Scale bar = 50 µm. d Quantification of the IntDen Cy3 signal/cell in donor and acceptor astrocytes revealed an equal amount of intracellular tau aggregates in the two populations of astrocytes at 3 days and 7 days. T-test was used for statistical analysis in d. Scale bar = 20 µm