Fig. 2.

Neuroprotective effects of lithium on medium-size lamina VII neurons. (a) Shows representative micrographs of those H&E-stained lamina VII neurons that were selected for the count based on size specificity (diameter ranging from 10 to 20 μm). (b) Graph indicates the severe loss of these neurons in G93A mice, which exceeded the loss of MN. Remarkably, the G93A mice treated with lithium showed a much higher number of lamina VII medium-size neurons even compared with saline-treated WT mice. (c–e) These results were confirmed by gephyrin immunostaining, as shown here and by all of the staining procedures summarized in SI Fig. 16. Counts represent the mean ± SEM of 62,000 cells per group (3,100 per mouse in groups of 20 mice). Comparison among groups was made by using one-way ANOVA. *, P ≤ 0.05 compared with WT saline-treated group. #, P ≤ 0.001 compared with G93A saline-treated groups. (Scale bars, 17 μm.)