Fig. 3.

Acute stress effects on NF-κB reporter expression in the hippocampus in NF-κB/LacZ reporter mice. (A–D) Most hippocampal progenitors [∼94%; BrdU⁺ (red), SOX2⁺ (blue), white arrows] did not express the NF-κB reporter [β-gal⁺ (green), yellow arrowheads]. (Scale bar: 50 μm.) (E–H) Expression of NF-κB reporter in NSCs [β-gal⁺ (F, green) SOX2⁺ (G, blue) GFAP⁺ (H, red)]. (Scale bar: 50 μm.) (I) Enlarged view of NSCs from E (Inset). (J) NF-κB/β-gal was observed in ANPs (β-gal⁺ SOX2⁺ GFAP⁻) as well as NSCs in the SGZ. Immature [β-gal⁺ DCX⁺ (red)] (K) and mature [β-gal⁺ NeuN⁺ (red)] (I) neurons also expressed the NF-κB reporter. (M–P) Acute immobilization stress (aSTR) resulted in more NF-κB activation (β-gal⁺) in NSCs but not in ANPs or in total progenitors compared with control (CTRL) [NSCs, F _2,9 = 11.381, P < 0.01 (M); ANPs, F _2,9 = 0.134, P = n.s. (N); total progenitors, F _2,9 = 2.994, P = n.s. (O); n = 4 per group]. (Scale bar: 25 μm.) By the Fisher’s PLSD test, **, P < 0.01 compared with CTRL and ^## , P < 0.01 compared with aSTR group.