Figure 4

Ultrastructural analysis of pcd mice indicates accumulation of autophagic vacuoles and autophagosomes in Purkinje cell dendrites and axons. (A-B) We performed an extensive comparison of Purkinje cell dendrites between 18 day-old wild-type and pcd^5Jhomozygous mice. Representative micrographs are shown here. (A) Dendrite process from a Purkinje cell neuron of a wild-type control. (B) In pcd^5Jhomozygous mice, we noted frequent double-membrane bound structures in Purkinje cell dendrites (lined arrows), sometimes containing mitochondria (asterisks). (C) When we examined the Purkinje cell axons projecting to the deep cerebellar nuclei in pcd^5Jhomozygous mice, we detected axons containing multiple autophagosome-like structures (arrows), containing mitochondria (asterisks) and other electron dense cellular components. Scale bars represent 1 μM.