Fig. 3

Reduced expressions of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and NURR1 in midbrain dopamine (mDA) neurons of two JMJD3 deficiency mouse models. (A) Schematics showing the coronal view of the adult mouse midbrain compromised of ventral tegmental area (VTA), substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and pars reticulata (SNr). Dotted lines a-d indicate positions shown in B and C. (B) Left, representative immunofluorescence images of TH + mDA neurons in Jmjd3 conditional knockout (cKO) mice and their control littermates (WT). Scale bar represents 100 μm. Right, quantifications of TH immunoreactivity and cell number of mDA neurons in VTA and SNc in WT and cKO mice. (C) Left, representative immunofluorescence images of TH + mDA neurons in GSK-J4 injected mice and their control (Vehicle). Scale bar represents 100 μm. Right, quantifications of TH immunoreactivity and cell number of DA neurons in VTA and SNc in GSK-J4 injected mice and control. (D, E) Representative immunofluorescence images and quantifications of NURR1 immunoreactivity showing decreased NURR1 (red) expression in TH + mDA neurons (green) in SNc and VTA of cKO and GSK-J4-injected mice in comparison to WT and Vehicle, respectively. Scale bar represents 20 μm. (F) Representative immunofluorescence images and quantifications showing effect of Svct2 KO on TH and NURR1 expressions in mouse embryonic day 14.5 ventral mesencephalon. Insets show NURR1 expression in higher magnification. Scale bar represents 50 μm. For immunoreactivity analysis, at least 50 TH + cells from each mouse were measured and averaged. N = 3–5 mice. Data represent mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ****P < 0.0001; Student’s t-test