Fig. 3

T. gondii infection induced Tau phosphorylation in the mouse brain. a Brains from mock-infected control mice and mice orally infected with 10 ME49 cysts for 15, 30, and 60 days were collected after perfusion with ice cold PBS. Brain sections were fixed and stained with an anti-AT8 antibody that specifically recognizes phosphorylated Tau (pTau) and was visualized after the reaction with an AEC substrate-developing kit (Invitrogen). n = 2–3 mice per group. Scale bar = 3 mm. b Magnified images of squared regions from cortex, hippocampus, and choroid plexus are shown for each time point. n = 5 mice per group. c Western blot analysis of AT8 (79 kDa) protein levels using whole brain samples from mock-infected controls and T. gondii-infected mice at days 30 and 60 post infection. Blot shown is representative of three independent experiments. d Densitometric analysis of Western blot data from c. The results are expressed as the ratio of densities of AT8-specific bands to total Tau bands (50–80 kDa). Data are shown as mean ± SEM. **p < 0.01