Fig. 4.

Dexamethasone inhibits AAV9-hTyr-induced microglia activation in the SNpc of C57BL/6J mice at 3- and 5- weeks post-injection. (A) Representative images of Iba1 immunostaining in the midbrain of C57BL/6J mice 3 and 5 weeks after AAV9-null or AAV9-hTyr injection and treated with Dexamethasone (DXM) or vehicle. (B) Iba1-immunoreactivity in the SN of C57BL/6J mice 3 and 5 weeks after the AAV9-null and AAV9-hTyr injection and treated with DXM or vehicle (C) Representative images of iba1 + cells with different phenotypes (ramified, dystrophic, ameboid and bushy) in C57BL/6J mice injected with AAV9-null, AAV9-hTyr and AAV9-hTyr treated with DXM at 3 weeks post-injection (upper panel). Ramified phenotype is characterized by long and thin ramifications with apparent cell integrity, dystrophic cells exhibit thicker and less clear ramifications, ameboid microglia are distinguished by the absence of ramifications and bushy cells posse a large nucleus and shorter ramifications (upper panel). Classification and quantification of Iba + cells in the midbrain of C57BL/6J mice 3 and 5 weeks after the AAV9-null and AAV9-hTyr injection and treated with DXM or vehicle (lower panel) (n = 5 per group). Magnification bar (A) 1 mm (C) 100 μm. Data are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey post hoc test was used. ***p ≤ 0.001****p ≤ 0.0001