Figure 3.

Hormonal contributions to sex-dependent stress effects on neuronal and glial morphology, and glia-neuron interaction in mPFC. Males (blue) exhibit increased apical dendritic complexity in pyramidal cells (red), increased astroglial ramification (purple), and reduced microglial activation (tan) compared with females. In males, chronic stress increases microglial activation, microglia-neuron interaction, and microglia-mediated synaptic pruning, decreases astroglial coverage, and reduces dendritic arborization. In females, chronic stress reduces microglial density and activation and increases astroglial coverage and dendritic complexity in mPFC. Estradiol (E) is necessary for stress-induced microglial deactivation in females and the stress-linked dendritic remodeling reported by Garrett and Wellman (2009).