Fig. 6.
NaV1.1 staining in control and noise exposed cochlea. Sections of cochlea from control (A) and noise exposed (B) rats incubated with antibodies against NaV1.1. (A) Faint staining of the SGN cell bodies (*) and peripheral processes (arrow) was observed in the control cochlea. (B) Following the noise exposure protocol no change in staining intensity was detected in the SGN cell bodies, although darker staining was seen in the peripheral processes compared to the control cochlea (insets). (C) Graph of SGN cell body staining intensity, showing no difference in the frequency of the mean grey values between the noise exposed and control (dotted line) rats. (D) Graph of the mean peripheral process staining intensity from control (clear bar) and noise exposed (filled bar) rats. Regions of the peripheral processes (box in B) were analysed and their mean grey value measured. This analysis showed a significant increase in the intensity of labelling of NaV1.1 in the peripheral processes of noise exposed rats compared to control animals (*, p < 0.05; n = 3 animals in each group). Scale bar = 50 μm, 15 μm in insets. Grey values, 0 = black, 255 = white, indicated by graduated bars.