Figure 7.

A Sativex®-like phytocannabinoid combination reduced astrocyte reactivity and the accumulation of CSPGs. Transverse cervical spinal cord sections (30 μm) were obtained on day 80 post-infection and stained for GFAP, vimentin and CS56. There was a prominent astrogliosis in the spinal cord of vehicle-treated infected animals evident in the representative microphotographs of GFAP staining (A). This is also reflected in the area occupied by GFAP⁺ astrocytes in the spinal cord white matter in each field (5–6 slices, n = 5–6 animals per group) (B), as well as in the vimentin staining (C). This astrogliosis is associated with an accumulation of CSPGs (CS56 staining, D; brevican gene expression, E) which is impeded by Sativex treatment (10 mg·kg⁻¹). The data represent the mean ± SEM: **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001 versus Sham; #P ≤ 0.05, ###P ≤ 0.001 versus TMEV-VEH animals (one-way anova followed by Tukey's and Bonferroni test: GFAP analysis; Non parametric Kruskal–Wallis test: brevican). WM, white matter; GM, gray matter. Scale bar = 100 μm; 20 μm.