Figure 3.
Tau expression in rTg4510 mice. A: Western blot analysis of 5 rTg4510 mice and three control mice revealed that the neuronal loss already evident by 2.5 months in rTg4510 dentate gyrus is not induced by excessive tau protein (red) in hippocampus (lane H) compared to the cortex (lane Cx) and striatum (lane Str, mw = molecular weight). B: Using tau normalized to actin (green) as a loading control, quantitative analysis shows that none of the forebrain regions are significantly different from any of the others. Cerebellum (lane Cb) does not express the tau transgene and has significantly less tau expression than all forebrain areas (hippocampus P = 0.012, cortex P = 0.007, striatum P = 0.006). rTg4510 hippocampus, cortex, and striatum also have significantly more tau expression than the same areas of control brain (*, P < 0.01). C and D: PHF1-positive aggregates of tau (brown) in cortical neuronal soma of rTg4510 mice (C) appear morphologically very similar to those in a human case of tauopathy with the same P301L mutation (D). Scale bar, 50 μm.