Journal: PLoS ONE
Article Title: Prophylactic Effect of Probiotics on the Development of Experimental Autoimmune Myasthenia Gravis
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052119
Figure Lengend Snippet: Oral administration of IRT5 probiotics or PBS as a control was initiated two weeks before immunization of TAChR and continued till the end of experiment (6 weeks after induction of EAMG) (A). Effect of IRT5 probiotics or PBS treatment on EAMG progression was analyzed by monitoring clinical score every other day (B). Mean clinical score was evaluated based on the standard clinical score criteria. The points and bars represent means and standard deviations, respectively. Data are representative of three independent experiments. *p<0.05. Complement deposition (C) and weight change of each treatment group were assessed. To assess the presence of AChR and complement at the NMJ in each treatment group, 10–15 muscle sections were analyzed (AChR: red fluorescence, complement C5b-9: green fluorescence). Result shown is one representative section. Normal non-immunized rats were employed as healthy control (positively stained for AChR but negative for C5b-9).
Article Snippet: Sections were incubated for overnight at 4°C with tetramethylrhodamine-labeled α-BTX (1/500 in PBSA; Molecular Probes) or mAb 2A1 against rat C5b-9 (membrane attack complex, 1/100 in PBSA; Hycult biotech, PB UDEN, The Netherlands).
Techniques: Fluorescence, Staining