Fig. 5

HUMSCs transplantation alleviated decline in dendritic branching in Purkinje cells. Cerebellar atrophy, as assessed by decline in dendritic branching in the Purkinje cells, was followed by morphological observations in cerebellar slices (300 μm thick) from six-month-old mice following intracellular biotin injection and immunostaining with anti-biocytin antibodies. Presented are representative photomicrographs and corresponding schematic drawings of cerebellar slices from mice in the groups of Normal, SCA1-PBS and SCA1-HUMSCs (a). Centered at the soma body, concentric rings with a radial distance of 10 μm between circles were used for quantification of the number of intersections. Quantifications using Sholl’s analysis indicated that HUMSCs transplantation partially preserved Purkinje cell extensions (b) and ameliorated shrinkage of intersections in the proximal regions (c) in SCA1 mice. Cerebellar sections were stained with an ATXN1 antibody. Presence of robust staining of ATXN1 protein in nuclei were found in the groups SCA1 and SCA1-PBS mice but not in the Normal, Normal-PBS, and SCA1-HUMSCs mice (d). * p < 0.05 compared with the Normal group. # p < 0.05 compared with the SCA1-HUMSCs group