Fig. 2

Apoptosis in primary rat astrocytes incubated with UCB, and Aβ peptide. Isolated astrocytes were cultured for 10 days prior to incubation with either 86 µM uconjugated bilirubin (UCB), 25 µM amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide (25–35), a combination of toxic agent plus 100 µM ursodeoxycholate (UDC), or no addition (control). Cells were fixed, and then assessed for nuclear morphological alterations characterized by condensed chromatin, fragmentation, and formation of apoptotic bodies as described in “Materials and Methods.” (A) Fluorescence micrsoscopy of Hoechst staining after incubation of rat astrocytes with no addition (a; control), UCB (b), Aβ peptide (c), UDC (d), UCB plus UDC (e), and Aβ peptide plus UDC (f). (B) Percentage of altered nuclei. Values are means ± standard error of the mean (SEM) of at least three separate experiments. *p < 0.01 from control; †p < 0.05 from toxic stimuli alone.