Crude ex vivo PrP^Sc containing preparations acutely impair LTP.

<p>(A) Western blot of cNBH not treated (-) or treated (+) with 50μg/ml PK. The PK- cNBH was utilised as control preparations for the treatments of WT hippocampal slices using prion-containing crude brain homogenates. (B) cM1000 superfused for 5 minutes over hippocampal slices from 12-week old WT mice approximately 20 minutes prior to HFS caused a significant impairment of LTP with (C) average LTP reduced by 53 ± 9% (n = 6) compared to cNBH. (<i>p = 0</i>.<i>0087</i>). (D) Western blot of cM1000 not treated (-) or treated (+) with 50μg/ml PK with PK+ proving presence of PrP^Sc. (E) cMU02 superfused for 5 minutes over slices from 12-week old WT mice approximately 20 minutes prior to HFS caused a significant impairment of LTP with (F) average LTP reduced by 62 ± 19% (n = 6) compared to cNBH. (<i>p = 0</i>.<i>0129</i>). (G) Western blot of cMU02 not treated (-) or treated (+) with 50μg/ml with PK+ proving presence of PrP^Sc. (H) The PK- cM1000 was superfused for 5 minutes over slices from 11-month old WT mice approximately 20 minutes prior to HFS caused significant impairment of LTP with (I) average LTP reduced by 44 ± 7%; (n = 7) compared to cNBH. (<i>p = 0</i>.<i>0006</i>). (J) Western blot of MoRK13-Inf not treated (-) or treated (+) with 50μg/ml PK with PK+ proving presence of PrP^Sc. (K) The PK- MoRK13-Inf was superfused for 5 minutes over slices from 11-month old WT mice approximately 20 minutes prior to HFS caused significant impairment of LTP with (L) average LTP reduced by 40 ± 6% (n = 6) compared to MoRK13-Un (<i>p = 0</i>.<i>0172</i>). (B, E, H & K) The first five-minute fEPSP recordings following HFS trains have been removed to enhance clarity and the last 10 minutes of post-HFS recordings were used for LTP analysis. (A, D, G, J) Molecular markers are provided at left. (B, E, H, K) Examples of raw fEPSP traces are provided as insets. Data are presented as ± SEM. *<i>p<0</i>.<i>05</i>, **<i>p<0</i>.<i>01</i>, ***<i>p<0</i>.<i>001</i>, ****<i>p<0</i>.<i>0001</i>.