Figure 1.

Olfactory epithelial changes during TNF-α expression. A. With no doxycycline (No Dox), the olfactory epithelium has a normal appearance with intact sustentacular cells (SUS), multi-layered olfactory neurons (ORN), and intact axon bundles. With 6 weeks of dox-induced TNF-α expression (Dox), the olfactory neuronal layer is significantly thinned with significant subepithelial infiltration of infammatory cells and lack of discernable axon bundles. 6 weeks of dox concurrent with prednisolone (Dox/Prednisolone) results in a relatively normal olfactory epithelium with decreased axon bundle diameter and some infiltration of inflammatory cells in the subepithelium. Slides are stained with hemotoxylin and eosin and images were taken at 20x magnification. Scale bar represents 20 μm. B. The basal aspect of the olfactory epithelium prior to TNF-α expression shows a uniform layer of horizontal basal cells through the contiguous layer of K5 immunostaining (red). After six weeks of TNF-α expression, there is no visible expression of K5 in the basal layer of thinned olfactory epithelium. With concurrent prednsiolone administration, the basal layer has a slight reduction in K5 expression when compared to untreated mice. Wild-type mouse had a mean intensity of 763 ± 17 Grey levels whereas the DOX-prednisolone mouse had a mean intensity of 575 ± 43 Grey levels (p< 0.03). . Scale bar represents 10 μm.