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. 2018 Aug 9;9:649. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2018.00649

Figure 5.

Figure 5

Glutamate injections upregulated pNR2B and pERK1/2 expression in the hippocampus. OVX rats were assigned to 5 groups for western blot analyses. At 5, 15, 30, and 45 min following the glutamate injections, rats were sacrificed and the intact hippocampus was dissected. In addition, in control group, we eliminated the possibility that the needle insertion produced protein expression changes by sacrificing rats immediately after vehicle injections. (A,B) Representative western blot of pNR2B and pERK1/2 after glutamate injections. Quantification of protein levels was normalized against loading control β-actin and presented as the relative density compared with the control group. *P < 0.05 vs. control group; #P < 0.05 vs. 5 min group; $P < 0.05 vs. 15 min group; &P < 0.05 vs. 30 min group; n = 5, per group. OVX rats were assigned to three groups for immunohistofluorescence staining: (1) rats received isotonic saline injections and were sacrificed immediately for pNR2B and pERK1/2 staining, (2, 3) rats received glutamate injections and were sacrificed respectively after 15 min for pNR2B and 5 min for pERK1/2 staining. (C,E) Representative fluorescence photomicrographs showing pNR2B and pERK1/2 positive neurons in CA3 of the hippocampus after glutamate injections. Scale bar = 50 μm. (D, F) The percentages of pNR2B and pERK1/2 positive neurons post-glutamate injections; *P < 0.05; n = 4, per group. pNR2B, phosphorylated NR2B subunit of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor; pERK1/2, phosphorylated (p44/42) mitogen-activated protein kinase.