Figure 3.

Cultured spinal astrocytes express CB₁-Rs, and DGLα in close proximity to each other. (a) Micrograph of a single 1 µm thick laser scanning confocal optical section illustrating cells immunostained with GFAP (magenta) in primary cell culture of spinal astrocytes. (The DAPI stained cell nuclei appear in cyan). (b) Box-plot histogram showing the distribution of distances between CB₁-R immunoreactive spots and the closest DGLα immunoreactive spots that were recovered within the confines of GFAP immunoreactive cultured astrocytes. (c–k) Micrographs of a single 1 µm thick laser scanning confocal optical section illustrating the co-localization between immunolabeling for GFAP (a marker for astrocytes, magenta; c,e,i), CB₁-R (yellow; c,f,j) and DGLα (cyan; c,g,k) in a process of a cultured spinal astrocyte. (d–k) Enlarged segments of a GFAP immunoreactive astrocytic process (c) are illustrated. Puncta immunoreactive for CB₁-R and DGLα are located within the confines of the glial process stained for GFAP. They appear in mixed colors in the merged images (c,d,h). Note that CB₁-R and DGLα immunoreactive spots are located close to each other within the confines of GFAP immunolabelled cultured astrocyte. Scale bars: 10 µm (a), 5 µm (c), 1 µm (d–k).