Figure 4.

A Sativex®-like phytocannabinoid combination attenuated the microglial response, down-regulated proinflammatory cytokines and up-regulated Arg-1 and IL-10 in the chronic phases of TMEV-IDD. Transverse cervical spinal cord sections (30 μm thick) obtained at day 80 post-infection were stained for Iba-1. (A) Representative microphotographs of Iba-1 immunostaining showing morphological changes in the microglial cells of infected animals that were reversed by Sativex treatment (10 mg·kg⁻¹). (B) Quantification of the percentage area occupied by microglia in the spinal cord white matter per field (n = 5–6 animals per group). Sativex treatment also decreased IL-1β (C) TNF-α (D) and IFN-γ (E) mRNA induction and increased Arg-1 (F) and IL-10 (G) as determined by RT-PCR in the spinal cord of TMEV-infected animals, normalizing mRNA expression to that of the 18S gene (n = 6 per group). The data represent the mean ± SEM: *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001 versus Sham; #P ≤ 0.05, ##P ≤ 0.01, ###P ≤ 0.001 versus TMEV-VEH animals (one-way anova followed by Tukey's and Bonferroni's test: IL-1β analysis; non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test: Iba-1 analysis; and unpaired two-tailed Student's t-test: TNF-α and Arg-1 analysis). For histology analysis, five to six spinal cord slices were examined per animal (n = 6 animals per group): Scale bar = 100 μm; 5 μm. NS, not significant.