FIGURE 4.

Mitochondrial dysfunction led to reduced generation of reactive astrocytes and increased neuronal death in the perilesional area. (A) Lesion volumetry revealed no difference between Tfam^ctrl and Tfam^cko mice. (B–D) Confocal picture of Tfam^ctrl (B) and Tfam^cko (C) animal stained against BrdU (red), GFP (green), and GFAP (white). (D) Percentage of GFAP⁺/GFP⁺ cells amongst all BrdU⁺ cells was sigificantly reduced in Tfam^cko mice in comparison to Tfam^ctrl. (E–G) Confocal images and quantification of Casp3 immunostaining (red) in Tfam^ctrl and Tfam^cko mice; GFP⁺ shows recombined cells (green); NeuN labels neurons (white); DAPI indicates cell nuclei. Tfam deletion in astrocytes significant increased neuronal cell death in the perilesional area (G). (A–D) n_ctrl = 6 animals, n_cko = 8 animals; (E–G) n_ctrl = 4 animals, n_cko = 4 animals. Data represented as mean ± SEM; t-test was performed to determine significance; all scale bars = 20 μm.