Figure 1From: Astrocytes acquire resistance to iron-dependent oxidative stress upon proinflammatory activation Activation protects astrocytes from iron-dependent oxidative stress and cell death. (A) Acute 1 μM iron overload (from this graph onwards indicated as Fe2+) was performed, and, after washing away extracellular Fe2+, the fluorescence of fura-2 (iron oxidative status) and Sytox Blue (cell death) were monitored for up to 60 min. The temporal analysis traces show the behavior of a single representative astrocyte in a microscopic field (expressed as relative fluorescence units, RFU). In this and in the following figures, the graphs are illustrative of at least three independent experiments. (B) A monolayer of pure astrocytes was left untreated (C) or activated for 24 h with a mix of two proinflammatory cytokines (CK: 10 ng/ml IL1β and 30 ng/ml TNFα). Cells were loaded with fura-2 (iron oxidative status) or CM-H2DCFDA (ROS detection) and then challenged with the acute iron overload. The traces represent the fluorescence intensity (expressed as RFU) of the astrocytes plated in a well of a 24-well plate (about 250,000 cells).Back to article page