Fig. 11.

Increased GFAP immunostaining in the contralateral VPM (cVPM) and MD and IL 28 days after spinal nerve ligation. Microphotographs are examples of GFAP immunostaining (red) in the cVPM (A1), MD (B1), and IL (C1) in naïve, sham, and SNL animals 28 days after the beginning of the experiments. Note that GFAP immunostaining is increased in each thalamic nucleus of the SNL rats. Morphometric analysis reveals that GFAP immunofluorescent surfaces are significantly increased in each thalamic nuclei of SNL rats (n = 6, 3 slices per animal) compared to the ones of naïve (n = 4, 3 slices per animal) rats (A2: one-way ANOVA F(2, 12) = 8.102, p = 0.0059; B2: one-way ANOVA F(2, 12) = 6.856, p = 0.0103; C2: one-way ANOVA F(2, 12) = 11.87, p = 0.0014) and that GFAP immunofluorescent surfaces are significantly increased in the cVPM of SNL rats compared to the ones of sham (n = 5, 3 slices per animal) rats (A2). Post hoc test (Tukey’s multiple comparison test): *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01