Fig 4. Preclinical stages of inflammation in the CNS of Nlrx1^−/−2D2 mice.

(A) The percentages of CD45^low microglia and CD45^high myeloid cells in the spinal cords and brains of Nlrx1^−/−2D2 mice compared with 2D2 mice, quantified by flow cytometry, Mann–Whitney U test. (B) Representative plots showing CD45^low and CD45^high gates in spinal cord and brain samples from Nlrx1^−/−2D2 and 2D2 mice, Mann–Whitney U test. (C) The percentage of activated myeloid cells (CD11b⁺MHCII⁺) in the spinal cord and brain of Nlrx1^−/−2D2 and 2D2 mice (n = 8 mice per group). (D) The percentage of Vβ11⁺ T cells and CD19⁺ B cells in the spinal cords and brains of Nlrx1^−/−2D2 and 2D2 mice, quantified by flow cytometry (n = 6 mice per group). (E) The mRNA levels of Iba1 and inflammatory mediators in Nlrx1^−/−2D2 brains compared with 2D2 brains, quantified by qPCR (n = 7 mice per group). All the data are presented as mean ± SD. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001 as determined by the Student t test, except when Mann-Whitney U test was specified. Underlying data can be found in S1 Data. CNS, central nervous system; Iba1, ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1; MHC, major histocompatibility complex; Nlrx1, nucleotide-binding, leucine-rich repeat containing X1; qPCR, quantitative polymerase chain reaction.