| First Author | Tian F | Year | 2011 |
| Journal | Autophagy | Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 9 | Pages | 985-92 |
| PubMed ID | 21628996 | Mgi Jnum | J:307807 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6511397 | Doi | 10.4161/auto.7.9.16012 |
| Citation | Tian F, et al. (2011) In vivo optical imaging of motor neuron autophagy in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Autophagy 7(9):985-92 |
| abstractText | Autophagy is involved in the pathological process of motor neuron death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We have generated a novel double transgenic (DTg) mouse line by mating a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-fused microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) transgenic (LC3-Tg) mouse and a G93A mutant human Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (mSOD1) transgenic (mSOD1-Tg) mouse. In vivo imaging of autophagy with these novel DTg mice was conducted at 10 (presymptomatic), 17 (early symptomatic) and 19 (late symptomatic) weeks of age. Fluorescence imaging analysis revealed a strong fluorescent signal in vivo over the T(3)-S(1) level at 17 and 19 weeks of age only in the DTg mice. Ex vivo autophagy imaging of spinal cord sections (20 mum) also showed a progressive increase of the fluorescence signal from 17 to 19 weeks in DTg mice in the anterior horn at the L(4)-(5) level, and the fluorescence signals were clearly observed in the gray matter of the spinal cord with a progressive increase of the signal and decreases in large motor neurons. Protein gel blot analysis revealed maximum LC3-I and LC3-II expressions at 19 weeks, consistent with the results from the in vivo autophagy imaging experiment. This method could also be applied as a unique tool for clarifying the role of autophagy, and to monitor the pathologic processes involving autophagy not only in ALS, but also other neurological diseases. |
