Figure 5
Neurotoxicity of Tat in HIV-1C 1084i -infected MDM supernatant. A. HIV-infected media used in Figure 5 were used to pre-adsorb HIV particles and/or free gp120 to eliminate confounding factors and the Tat protein from such media were further adsorbed using anti-Tat antibodies to demonstrate the neurotoxicity specifically due to Tat from HIV − 1BADA and HIV-1C1084i but not HIV-1CIndieC1. For both panels A and B, bars corresponding to medium depleted of virus/gp120 is shown by ↓, whereas those corresponding to medium depleted of both virus/gp120 and Tat protein are shown by ↓↓. B. Measurement of dendritic width shows HIV-1BADA & HIV-1C1084i cause significant decreases in dendritic width. Use of virus-adsorbed medium and virus- plus Tat-adsorbed HIV-1BADA and HIV-1C1084i-infected medium as in Panel A above lead to increase in dendrite width, but not in HIV-1CIndieC-infected medium, clearly demonstrating the role played by HIV-1C1084i Tat in neuronal atrophy. C. Representative fields showing effect of Tat immune-depletion in HIV-1C1084i MDM media on dendrite width. The left top and bottom panels show representative fields of primary neurons treated with HIV-1C1084i MDM media prior to Tat immuno-depletion and the right top and bottom panels show increase in dendrite width following immune-depletion of Tat. * p < 0.05.