miR-146a and Astrocyte Inflammatory Response Figure 1. miR-146a expression in GG and FCD type IIb. (A) Quantitative real-time PCR of miR-146a in control cortex (n = 6; autopsy), FCD type IIb (n = 6) and GG (n = 5) specimens. miR-146a expression was normalized to that of the U6B small nuclear RNA gene (rnu6b). The error bars represent SEM; statistical significance: *P,0.05 compared to control. (B–E) In situ hybridization of miR-146a expression in control (B–C) and FCD type IIb (D–E) specimens. miR-146a was expressed at low levels in neurons and undetectable in glial cells in control grey (B) and white matter (C) specimens. Panels D: FCD type IIb tissue showing miR-146a expression in glial cells (arrows; insert a); inserts (b,c) in D show colocalization (purple) of miR-146a (red) in GFAP (blue) positive astrocytes. Panel E: FCD type IIb tissue showing miR-146a expression in balloon cells (arrows). Scale bar in B: B: 80 mm. C–E: 40 mm. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044789.g001 PLOS ONE | www.plosone.org 5 September 2012 | Volume 7 | Issue 9 | e44789