Figure 5

Increased neuronal loss and partial rescue of astrogliosis in the brain of dKO mice. (A) Nissl staining of coronal brain sections of control, Cdk5 cKO2 and dKO mice at P17. In higher magnification we observed a decreased of the number of cells on cortex and hippocampus of Cdk5 cKO2 and dKO mice. (B) Immunohistochemistry (IHC) against NeuN, a marker of neurons, of coronal brain sections of control, Cdk5 cKO2 and dKO mice at P17. In higher magnification we observed a decreased of the number of NeuN positive cells on cortex and hippocampus of Cdk5 cKO2 and dKO mice. (C) IHC against GFAP, a marker of astrogliosis, of coronal brain sections of control, Cdk5 cKO2 and dKO mice at P17. In higher magnification we observed an increased number of GFAP positive cells on cortex and hippocampus of Cdk5 cKO2. In contrast, there were a decreased number of GFAP positive cells on the same areas of brain of dKO mice. (D) Representative Western blot analysis showing NeuN protein levels in brain cortex of control, Cdk5 cKO2 and dKO mice at P17. Lower panel showed a quantification of Western blots of NeuN. α-tubulin was used as loading control. (E) Representative Western blot analysis showing GFAP protein levels in brain cortex of control, Cdk5 cKO2 and dKO mice at P17. Lower panel showed a quantification of Western blots of GFAP. α-tubulin was used as loading control. All data are presented as the mean and SEM (n = 3 to 6). *P < 0.05 (t-test).