Fig. 8.

Environment and aging influences on the number and morphology of astrocytes from the molecular layer of dentate gyrus. Relative number of astrocytes morphological phenotypes Type I and Type II as a function of the total number of GFAP immunolabeled astrocytes (GFAP + astrocytes). To estimate these numbers, we used percentage values of type I and type II reconstructed astrocytes in combination with previous stereological data described elsewhere [106]. Note that young mice independent of environment, and aged mice from enriched environment show Type I and II morphological phenotypes, whereas aged mice from standard environment did not. Y SE young adult raised in standard environment; Y EE young adult raised in enriched environment; A SE aged mice raised in standard environment and A EE aged mice raised in enriched environment. SE standard environment; EE enriched environment. (*) and (#) indicate significant differences between the number of total astrocytes from different experimental groups (Y EE vs Y SE; Y EE vs A EE; Y SE vs A SE; A EE vs A SE)