Fig. 6

Rotenone, an inhibitor of oxidative metabolism, overcomes the stimulatory effect of anti-TLR2 antibody on phagocytosis of Aβ. Microglia were prepared as described in the legend for Fig. 1 and treated with LPS + Aβ in the presence or absence of anti-TLR2 antibody and the presence or absence of rotenone (rot). Cells were stained for Aβ and Iba1 as described in the “Methods” section. a The panel shows confocal fluorescence images at × 40 magnification. Sample images are presented that reveal the presence of Aβ (green) in Iba1⁺ (red) in cells that were incubated in LPS + Aβ with anti-TLR2 (left hand images) in the presence or absence of rotenone (rot; right hand images). The inserts highlights Aβ uptake by an Iba1⁺ cell. (Scale bar = 50 μm). b Incubation of microglia in the presence of LPS + Aβ+anti-TLR2 antibody significantly increased phagocytosis of Aβ ((F3,21) = 19.27; p = 0.0378 **p < 0.01; one-way ANOVA; Newman-Keuls multiple comparison test), and this effect is significantly attenuated when rotenone was added to the incubation (⁺⁺p < 0.01; LPS + Aβ+anti-TLR2 antibody vs LPS + Aβ+anti-TLR2 antibody+rotenone. Aβ uptake is expressed as a ratio between the number of Aβ⁺ Iba⁺ cells as a total number of Iba⁺ cells. A total of 10 fields per experiment in triplicate were analysed