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. 2016 Dec 24;8(5):8264–8282. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.14160

Figure 7. Paeoniflorin reduced interferon (IFN)-α-induced neuroinflammation in the medial prefrontal cortex.

Figure 7

Immunofluorescence co-staining of Iba1(red) and GFAP (green) after pretreatment with paeoniflorin (40 mg/kg i.g. daily for 4 weeks) and systemic IFN-α administration (15×106 IU/kg s.c.) for 4 weeks. Nuclei are counterstained with DAPI (blue). A. Quantification of the number of activated Iba1-and GFAP-positive cells after IFN-α treatment using an observer-independent unbiased stereology approach. B, C. Immunoreactivity was evaluated for the microglial marker Iba1 and the astrocytic marker GFAP in the region of interest. The elevated activated microglia in the medial prefrontal cortex of IFN-α-injected mice were reduced by both paeoniflorin and escitalopram (10 mg/kg). Astrocytes were not significantly affected by IFN-α in this region. The region of interest (the medial prefrontal cortex) is shown in the stereotaxic atlas of the mouse brain. D. Representative confocal microphotographs. Upper images: Iba1+GFAP+DAPI staining with an original magnification of × 100. Lower images:Iba1+GFAP+DAPI staining with an original magnification of × 400. Data are mean values ± SEM, evaluated by one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey's post hoc tests (n=5 animals per group). *p< 0.05, **p< 0.01, ***p< 0.001 compared with the saline-treated group; #p< 0.05, ##p< 0.01, ###p< 0.001 compared with the IFN-α-treated group. Scale bar, 100 μm.