Research Paper Volume 10, Issue 9 pp 2367—2382

Figure 1. (A) CHI3L1 mRNA expression levels in the anterior horn of the lumbar spinal cord and frontal cortex area 8 in sALS and control cases. CHI3L1 is significantly up-regulated in the anterior spinal cord but has only a tendency to increase without significance in the frontal cortex in sALS compared with controls. (B) mRNA expression levels of microglial (CD68 and AIF1) and astroglial (GFAP and ALDH1L1) markers in the anterior horn of lumbar spinal cord and frontal cortex area 8 in sALS and age-matched controls. Microglial markers CD68 and AIF1 are significantly up-regulated in the anterior horn of the spinal cord but not in the frontal cortex in sALS. The mRNA expression levels of astroglial markers in the spinal cord and frontal cortex are not modified in pathological cases when compared with controls. (C) Western blot analysis of YKL40 in the spinal cord (left panel) and frontal cortex area 8 (right panel) of control and sALS; β-actin was used for normalization. Graphical representation of western blot data; fold changes in the expression of protein are determined relative to the control cases. YKL40 and GFAP protein levels are increased in the spinal cord and frontal cortex in sALS when compared with controls. Due to individual variation, increased values in the anterior horn of the spinal cord showed only a tendency without statistical significance. In contrast, expression levels were not significantly modified in sALS. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001, tendency #P<0.1. (D) YKL40 expression in frontal cortex area 8 (a, b) and spinal cord (c, d) in control (a, c) and sALS (b, d) cases) is found in astrocytes; immunohistochemical sections lightly counterstained with haematoxylin, bar = 25μm.