Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 1 pp 571—592
STARD1 and NPC1 expression as pathological markers associated with astrogliosis in post-mortem brains from patients with Alzheimer's disease and Down syndrome
Figure 4. Astrocytes-expressing lysosomal and mitochondrial cholesterol carriers in hippocampal regions. (A) Representative confocal images of paraffined hippocampal regions (5 μm) from AD (n=7), DS (n=7), and control (n=7) subjects immunolabeled against Aβ42 (red), GFAP (yellow), and NPC1 or StARD1 (both green). Nuclei are stained with Hoechst 33342 (blue). Lower panels show the colocalization mask between GFAP and NPC1 or StARD1 (white) highlighted in the squared areas. Scale bar: 10 μm. (B) Astrocyte colocalization with NPC1 (lysosomal) and StARD1 (mitochondrial) cholesterol carriers into hippocampal regions from AD, DS, and control subjects. 10 images per hippocampal region and per sample were analysed with Image J to assess the index of astrocyte (GFAP+) colocalization with NPC1 or StARD1. (*) p<0.05; (**) p<0.01; (***) p<0.001.