Fig. 6: Intermittent fasting reduces aSyn-induced neurodegeneration in aged mice.

A Representative images of midbrain sections from aged animals, stained for TH. Scale bar: 500 μm. B Normalized number of TH-positive neurons in the SN. Numbers were normalized to the (i) contralateral hemisphere and (ii) to the PBS–AL group. Box and whisker plots, middle line: median, +: mean, circles: individual animals; n = 4 for PBS and n = 5 for rAAV2/7-aSyn, two-way ANOVA, Tukey post-hoc test, p = 0.0134. C Representative images of the SN from aged animals unilaterally injected with rAAV2/7-aSyn vector, stained for TH (magenta pseudo color on overlay images) and phospho-aSyn (green). Scale bar: 50 µm. D Intensity of paSyn signal within human-aSyn-positive neurons, normalized to the rAAV-aSyn–AL group. Box and whisker plots, middle line: median, +: mean, circles: individual animals; n = 5, two-sided t-test, p = 0.003. E Representative images of striatal sections from aged animals, stained for TH. Scale bar: 20 μm. F Density of TH-positive fibers in the STR, normalized to the (i) contralateral hemisphere and (ii) to the PBS–AL group. Box and whisker plots, middle line: median, +: mean, circles: individual animals; n = 4 for PBS and n = 5 for rAAV2/7-aSyn, two-way ANOVA, Tukey post-hoc test, p = 0.0004). G Representative images showing Iba1 staining in the striatum of aged animals. Scale bar: 20 μm. H Area fraction positive for Iba1 signal, normalized to the (i) contralateral hemisphere of the same animal and to the (ii) PBS–AL group. Box and whisker plots, middle line: median, +: mean, circles: individual animals; n = 4 for PBS and n = 5 for rAAV2/7-aSyn, two-way ANOVA, Tukey post-hoc test. Data for GFAP is shown as Supplement to Fig. 6. Box and whiskers plots: box: 25th to 75th percentiles, whiskers: from the smallest to the largest value. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.