Fig. 3

Reduction of cPLA₂α upregulation at the early stage did not affect the development of the disease. Mice were brain infused with 10 μg/day AS (n = 12) or the corresponding sense (n = 6) or saline (n = 6) for 6 weeks starting at 6-week-old hmSOD1 mice. a Representative immunofluorescence staining of cPLA₂α, neurons (NeuN), microglia (Iba-1), and astrocytes (GFAP) in the brain stem tissue section of WT mice, hmSOD1 mice (ALS), hmSOD1 mice brain infused with AS (ALS + AS) or sense (ALS + SE) at 12 weeks. Mice receiving saline or sense showed similar results and were combined under the sense-treated group. A double staining of cPLA₂α and NeuN is presented. Scale bars = 50 μm, and in the insets = 20 μm. Shown are representative images of 12 mice in each group. The mean ± SEM of the fluorescence intensity (for cPLA₂α) and percentage of the cell area (for cell markers) are presented in the bar graph. *p < 0.001—significance from WT mice and from AS-treated hmSOD1 mice. b A representative immunoblot analysis of cPLA₂α and the corresponding calreticulin protein expression in the spinal cord lysates of the mice. cPLA₂α protein expression was determined by dividing the intensity of each cPLA₂α by the intensity of the corresponding calreticulin band after quantitation by densitometry and expressed in the bar graph as arbitrary units. The bar graph is the mean ± SE of 8 mice in each group. *p < 0.001—significance from WT mice and from AS-treated hmSOD1 mice. c Motor function by rotarod test of AS or sense brain infused-hmSOD1 mice (n = 12 in each group)