FIGURE 9.

Treatment with CNTF or C16 inhibited reactive gliosis, as revealed by FITC-conjugated GFAP immunofluorescent staining (traverse sections through the lumbar spinal cord), bar = 100 μm. At week 2 post-immunization; (A) normal control group, (B) enlarged image showed the normal astrocytes. (C,D) Vehicle-treated EAE rats, showing astrocyte proliferation and formation of a visible glial scar (in (C)]. At week 8 post-immunization, vehicle-treated EAE rats (E) and CNTF-treated EAE rats (F) all exhibited evident glial scar formation, while reactive gliosis markedly decreased in C16- (G) and C16+CNTF-treated (H) EAE rats. (I-L) GFAP expression was visibly reduced at week 2 post-immunization following CNTF, C16, and C16+CNTF treatment, but not at week 8 post-immunization following CNTF treatment, as shown by Western blotting. (M,N): ^aP < 0.05 versus normal control; ^bP < 0.05 versus vehicle-treated EAE rats; ^cP < 0.05 versus C16-treated EAE rats; ^dP < 0.05 versus CNTF-treated EAE rats.