Fig. 1

serpina3n attenuates activated T cell-mediated neuronal killing and alpha-tubulin cleavage. a Human fetal neurons were treated with T cell media (control) or co-cultured with unactivated T cells, with activated T cells, with Jurkat cells-derived supernatant-treated activated T cells or with serpina3n-treated activated T cells. The culture was immuno-stained using anti-MAP2 antibody. The control group was taken as 100 %. serpina3n treatment significantly reduced T cell-mediated neuronal killing (P < 0.05; data is pooled from at least three different donors of neurons and T cells). b Western blotting showing that the cytoskeletal protein, alpha-tubulin, remained intact in the control group (neurons treated with media only), and in the groups in which neurons were co-cultured with unactivated T cells. Alpha-tubulin was cleaved in the neurons that were either treated with GrB (positive control) or co-cultured with activated T cells. serpina3n treatment prevented activated T cell-mediated cleavage of alpha-tubulin (indicated by _*)