Immunohistochemistry of Human Brain Striatum: ciliation of cholinergic neurons and astrocytes

Output Details

We study cholinergic neurons and astrocytes of the dorsal striatum that are important components of the nigrostriatal circuit. We have shown previously that these cell types lose primary cilia in 4 mouse models of LRRK2 Parkinson’s disease (Dhekne et al., 2019; Khan et al., 2021). Here we present a method to identify the same brain region in human postmortem tissue to evaluate ciliary status. The striatum is identified morphologically and also by immunofluorescence microscopy using anti-DARPP-32 antibodies (Ouimet & Greengard, 1990; Arlotta et al., 2008). Cholinergic cell bodies stain brightly with anti-choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) antibodies and these cells are also identifiable using antibodies that recognize the choline transporter, CHT. Auto-fluorescence is decreased using Sudan Black B.
Tags
  • Brain tissue imaging
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Striatum

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