Figure 5

Wnt and β-catenin protein expression in the brain of autistic subjects. Upper panel: western blot analyses were carried out on frontal cortex homogenates from six autistic subjects and six age- and sex-matched controls using an anti-β-catenin antibody (dilution 1:1000) (5A). The blots were quantified after being normalized by actin (5B). Data are shown as mean ± standard error (SE). **P < 0.01. Lower panel: immunohistochemistry studies were carried out on frontal cortex sections from six autistic subjects and six age-matched controls using an anti-Wnt antibody (dilution 1:100). Weaker immunostaining of Wnt protein (dark brown color as indicated by arrows) was present in the autistic subjects compared with the controls (5C). Immunostaining density was quantified using Image J analysis (5D). Data are shown as mean ± standard error (SE). *P < 0.05. Scale bar: 20 μm.