Fig. 5

Calcineurin inhibition protects against MPTP induced depletion of TH positive neurons at SN and dendritic spine density at striatum, while VIVIT peptide fails to safeguard the later. A Immunohistochemical staining for Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) is performed after 14 days of treatment for substantia nigra (SN) and striatal cryosections (20 µm). Scale bar—100 µm. B TH positive neuronal cell bodies at SN or striatal projections are measured. N = 3 (C–E) After the treatment period striatal dopamine (DA) is quantified by HPLC method and represented as pmol/mg tissue. At least 4 animal striatum is utilized for the analysis. (C, D) denote changes in DA levels on 8th and 15th day respectively, while (E) shows the changes on 15th day. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, ****P ≤ 0.0001 when compared to the control group, ^##P ≤ 0.01 when compared to the MPTP treated group. ^@P ≤ 0.05 when compared to the MPTP + VIVIT treated group. P values are calculated by one way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test. F Striatal sections (60 µm) are stained by Golgi-Cox method and representative images are provided. The full images of the neurons are presented in the inset. Scale bar 20 µm for inset image and 10 µm for the enlarged dendritic portion. G–I Spine number in entire length on individual dendritic projections from each neuron is counted and the mean number of spines are represented for each treatment group on the 8th (G) and 15th (H, I) day. At least 5 animal striatum and 4–5 neurons from each striatum are considered for the analysis. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001, ****P ≤ 0.0001 when compared to control group; #P ≤ 0.05, ##P ≤ 0.01, ###P ≤ 0.001, when compared to MPTP treated group. Bar graphs represent mean ± SEM. P values are calculated by one way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test