Fig. 1: Elevated ASC and NLRP3 protein expression observed during multiple stages of mesencephalic neurodegeneration.

a Post-mortem mesencephalic tissues were obtained from healthy control subjects (CTL) (n = 6), asymptomatic subjects with loss of SNpC neurons (NL) (n = 6), and clinically confirmed PD patients (PD) (n = 6). Tissues were sectioned at 5 µM and stained with H&E (top row), anti-ASC (middle row, red), or anti-NLRP3 antibodies (bottom row, red). Scale bars in 20× field and 60× inset represent 10 μm. b Fewer neuromelanin-positive neurons were observed in the SNpC in both NL tissues and PD tissues relative to healthy controls (****P < 0.0001, ***P = 0.0002, *P = 0.0111). c More ASC-positive cells were observed in the PD tissues relative to controls (**P = 0.0024). d More NLRP3-positive cells were observed in the NL tissues relative to CTL tissues (*P = 0.0132), while there were significantly more NLRP3-positive cells observed in the PD tissues relative to NL tissues (*P = 0.0487) and CTL tissues (****P < 0.0001). All quantification was performed by counting 10 distinct fields per section. P-values were determined using one-way ANOVA with multiple comparisons, error bars in b–d represent s.e.m. e ASC-immunoreactive cells compared to neuromelanin-positive cells per tissue in three histologic groups (R² = 0.4977, P = 0.0011). f NLRP3-immunoreactive cells were statistically associated with reduced number of neuromelanin-positive cells across three histologic groups (R² = 0.6030, P = 0.0002). g Correlation between number of ASC-immunoreactive and NLRP3-immunoreactive cells (R² = 0.6854, P < 0.0001).