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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 May 1.
Published in final edited form as: Glia. 2015 Dec 19;64(5):668–694. doi: 10.1002/glia.22953

Figure 11. STAT3-CKO astrocytes show exacerbated acute injury in crush injured spinal cords.

Figure 11

A, Aquaporin 4 (Aqp4) and GFAP stained gray matter tissue contains injured protoplasmic astrocytes with swollen cell bodies (asterisks) and thin processes (arrowheads) at 6 h after moderate crush SCI. Cell bodies of STAT3-CKO astrocytes were larger, more swollen, than those of CON astrocytes. By 1 day post-injury, protoplasmic CON astrocytes (black asterisk) retained processes (arrowheads), while STAT3-CKO cell bodies (white asterisks) had missing or truncated processes (arrows). Black bar = 20 μm. B, Astrocytes of injured white matter show process damage in CON (top) and STAT3-CKO (bottom) cords. STAT3-CKO fibrous astrocytes were more disintegrated than CON white matter, bearing tortuous, but continuous processes (arrow). Encircled are a reactive CON and injured STAT3-CKO astrocytes. White bar = 20 μm. C, The extent of astrocyte injury zones is plotted for CON and STAT3-CKO white matter tissues within 1 day post-SCI. The distance from lesion center to territorial reactive astrocytes was measured (means and SD are given in μm, 5–9 sections were measured for each animal, n= 3–6 animals). Two-tailed T-test shows significantly larger extent of astroglial injury zones in STAT3-CKO versus CON cords (asterisk, P<0.02).