Fig. 1
Immunolabeling of α-smooth muscle actin (αSMA) in hippocampal mossy fibers (MF) with densitometry relative to age. Antibody information, counterstain, ages of the brain donors, scale bar and quantitative methodology are included in the figure. (A) Concurrent ɑSMA immunolabeling by the goat antibody in human temporal lobe and adult rat brain sections, with enlarged panels illustrating the antibody labeling in human (A1) but not rat (A2, A3) hippocampal MF. (B) Mossy fiber ɑSMA immunolabeling by a rabbit antibody, enlarged panels showing simultaneous labeling in vascular smooth muscle cells (B1), the transition pattern of MF labeling at the border of CA3/CA2 (B2), and a lack of fiber-like labeling in the prosubiculum (B3). (C) Distribution of ɑSMA labeled MF across the anteroposterior axis of the hippocampal formation, with sections passing the head, body and tail of the hippocampus indicated. (D) Densitometry of αSMA labeling in the MF field (hilus and CA3) relative to other temporal lobe areas. The specific optic density (o.d.) in the areas of interest are calculated using a threshold o.d. obtained from the white matter region or from an adjacent section immunostained by excluding the primary antibody. (E, F) Graphic and statistical analysis of data from 28 postmortem brains, donor’s ages 1–76 years. *: Significantly different according to posthoc test. Additional abbreviations: FG: fusiform gyrus; PHG: parahippocampal gyrus; Ent: entorhinal cortex; Sub: subiculum, Pro-S: prosubiculum, Pre-S: presubiculum; Para-S: parasubiculum; ML: molecular layer; GCL: granule cell layer; s.o.: stratum oriens; s.p.: stratum pyramidale; s.r.: stratum radiatum; s.l.m.: stratum lacunosum-moleculare; mf: mossy fiber; WM: white matter.
