Figure 4.

Immunofluorescence analysis of the expression of hepcidin protein in the cortex, hippocampus, striatum, and substantia nigra of rat brains. The male Sprague Dawley rats were iv injected with sterile saline (the control, n = 1 rat) or LPS at a dose of 1 μg/g body weight (n = 2 rats). The animals were anesthetized and decapitated 6 h after the administration of LPS. After perfusion with ice-cold PBS through the left ventricle, the brain was rapidly removed and immediately dissected into four regions: cortex, hippocampus, striatum, and substantia nigra. Immunofluorescence analysis was immediately conducted as described in Materials and Methods. A, Representative immunofluorescence photomicrographs of hepcidin expression in different brain regions. B, Quantitative analysis of fluorescence density of hepcidin expression in different brain regions. The data are presented as the mean ± sem [percentage (%) of the control] of eight cryosections from one (the control group) or two rats (LPS group). *, P < 0.005; **, P < 0.001 (compared with the control by a Student’s t test). No significant differences in the expression of hepcidin protein of the hippocampus (P = 0.107) or striatum (P = 0.078) were found between the rats treated with and without LPS.