Figure 4.

Exercise and antidepressant interventions increased hippocampal mature BDNF immunoreactivity in WT mice. No BDNF response to interventions was evident CREB^IR mice. *Among the WT mice, those who exercised (p = .019, n = 27) and received the combination of the two treatments (p = .004, n = 7), but not those that received reboxetine (p = .078, n = 7), expressed significantly more mature BDNF immunoreactivity (electrophoresing as a ∼17-kDal band) than those that were sedentary (n = 12) [F_(3,49) = 3.395, p = .025]. # WT mice also expressed significantly more BDNF immunoreactivity than CREB^IR mice for each intervention, except for sedentary mice, who expressed the same amount between genotypes. Among the CREB^IR mice, exercising mice (n = 23) expressed significantly more BDNF immunoreactivity than those that received just reboxetine (p = .006, n = 5) and the combination treatment (p = .007, n = 7). Because of the very small sample volumes, each mouse hippocampus was randomly assigned to a particular gel/Western film, thereby controlling for film-to-film variability. Therefore, the row of BDNF bands and their respective GAPDH bands are a composite from several different Western blotting films. However, each BDNF band and its respective GAPDH band all represent the same mouse hippocampal sample (same gel lane).