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. 2016 Sep 14;42(2):408–418. doi: 10.1038/npp.2016.150

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Fos expression in serotonin and norepinephrine nuclei is increased on ED1 in female and male rats. Fos expression was measured in serotonin and norepinephrine nuclei in male and female rats killed following homecage or ED1 exposure; n=4–7/group. Homecage controls were administered saline and returned to their homecage for 2 h, and killed at the same time of day as ED1 rats. ED1 rats were administered saline 30 min before ED1 testing, and perfused 30 min following the 90 min ED1 test. Statistics for all panels are provided in Supplementary Table S2. Two-way ANOVAs were performed between sex and condition followed by post hoc t-tests for all analyses. (a) There was a significant main effect of test condition in the dorsal raphe dorsal area (DRD), wherein post hoc tests revealed the percentage of 5-HT neurons that are Fos+ was significantly increased on ED1 in males and females compared with respective homecage controls; *p<0.05 (n=4–7/group). (b) There was a significant main effect of test condition in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (VLPAG), wherein the percentage of 5-HT neurons that are Fos+ is increased on ED1. There was also a significant interaction between test condition and sex, wherein females have a greater increase in ED1 Fos compared with males; **p<0.05 (n=4–6/group). (c) There was a significant main effect of test condition and sex in the median raphe nucleus (MRN), wherein the percentage of 5-HT neurons that are Fos+ was increased on ED1 compared with homecage, and in males compared with females. There was also a significant interaction between test condition and sex, wherein females had a greater increase in ED1 Fos compared with males; **p<0.05 (n=4–7/group). (d) There was a significant main effect of test condition and sex in the locus coeruleus, wherein the number of Fos+ neurons was increased on ED1 compared with homecage subjects, and increased in females compared with males. There was also a significant interaction between test condition and sex, wherein females have a greater increase in ED1 Fos compared with males; **p<0.05 (n=4–11/group). (e) Depiction of serotonin cell body regions where Fos was counted, representative section from Bregma −7.80 (Paxinos and Watson, 2006). (f) Representative image of Fos and 5-HT expression in DRD from an ED1+saline female; scale bar=100 μM. (g) Depiction of LC region where Fos was counted, representative section from Bregma −9.72 (Paxinos and Watson, 2006). (h) Representative image of Fos expression in LC from an ED1+Saline female. Scale bar=100 μM.