Figure 8.

Bilateral reductions in markers of intracortical inhibition in P35 BoNT/E rats. A, Mean density of GAD65-positive pixels in the neuropil (layers II–III) is significantly reduced in the cortex ipsilateral and contralateral to BoNT/E infusion with respect to both naive and vehicle-injected cortex. Error bars indicate SE. B, Quantification of GAD65 immunofluorescence in GABAergic terminals around the soma of target neurons. The box chart summarizes the distribution of the GAD65 signal-to-background ratio (intensity of GAD65 label in puncta rings divided by the background staining in the soma) for the cells in each experimental group. The horizontal lines in the box denote the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile values. The error bars denote the 5th and 95th percentile values. The square symbol in the box denotes the mean of the column of data. GAD65 staining is less intense in both hemispheres of BoNT/E-injected rats compared with normal and vehicle-injected cortex (one-way ANOVA followed by Dunn's test, p < 0.05). C, Mean ± SE density of perineuronal nets surrounded neurons in layer II/III. Density of WFA-positive cells is reduced ipsilateral and contralateral to BoNT/E infusion. Abbreviations as in Figure 6.