Figure 2.

17β-estradiol prevents Amyloid beta_1–42-induced apoptosis. Primary hippocampal neurons pretreated with E₂ (10 ng/mL; 48 hr) or vehicle control were exposed to Aβ_1–42 for 3 days and assessed for apoptosis by TUNEL staining. A, Representative images of TUNEL positive neurons and total nuclei. Bar = 20 μm. B, Counts of TUNEL positive neurons normalized to total nuclei from 3 random fields per well are presented as mean ± SEM. (* = p < 0.05 as compared to control; + = p < 0.05 as compared to Aβ_1–42 alone; n = 4).