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. 2016 Jun 16;6:27983. doi: 10.1038/srep27983

Figure 2. Analysis of the blood and facial nucleus (FN) of wild type and NG2-knockout mice following facial nerve axotomy (FNA).

Figure 2

Wild type (WT) or NG2-knockout (KO) mice were exposed to FNA and blood samples and the FN were collected the day before the operation (−1) or at the indicated times after FNA. Serum levels of NGF (A) and GDNF (B) were measured by ELISA. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 vs. corresponding WT or KO sham group. #p < 0.05. (C) CD11b expression in the contralateral (c) and ipsilateral (i) FN was measured by western blotting. The sham mice served as control. The relative protein levels were determined after normalization with β-actin. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 vs. sham of WT or KO. #p < 0.05. (D–G) The contralateral (c) and the ipsilateral (i) facial nucleus (FN) were collected on day 7 after FNA. Immunochemical analysis (IHC) of CD11b (D) and Iba1 (F) in FN. The CD11b (E) and Iba1 (G) expression intensities were analyzed in terms of integral optical density (IOD). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 vs. corresponding WT or KO c (7 d) group. #p < 0.05. Blood samples were collected at 7 day after FNA, serum levels of TNF-α (H) and IL-1β (I) were measured by ELISA. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 vs. corresponding WT or KO sham group. #p < 0.05. (J,K) The contralateral (c) and the ipsilateral (i) facial nucleus (FN) were collected at 7 day after FNA. (J) TUNEL assay was performed on the FN sections from each group. Scale bar = 20 μm. (K) The apoptotic index was derived from TUNEL staining of the FN from each group. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 vs. corresponding WT or KO c (7 d) group. #p < 0.05. n = 3 in sham group, n = 4–6 in FNA group per time point.