Figure 5.

Effect of dexamethasone and ibuprofen pre-treatment on cortical pro-inflammatory gene expression. (a) CSDs were induced by brief topical KCl application through thinned skull and monitored by laser Doppler flowmetry. Six CSDs were induced in this manner over 1 h in male ChR2⁻ mice. Dexamethasone, ibuprofen, or vehicle was administered 15 min prior to first CSD. Cortical tissue was harvested at indicated times after the first CSD, chosen based on peak responses (see Figure 1). (b) IL-1β, CCL2, TNF-α, and Cox-2 mRNA expression 1 or 4 h after the first CSD after vehicle, dexamethasone, or ibuprofen pre-treatment. Values are expressed as % of average contralateral expression of vehicle group. Left (white) and right (gray) bars at each drug indicate contralateral and ipsilateral hemispheres, respectively (whiskers, full range; box, interquartile range; horizontal line, median; + , mean). Individual data points from each animal are also shown. Dashed lines show paired measurements (contralateral vs. ipsilateral) from the same brain. * – **** p < 0.05–0.0001 vs. contralateral hemisphere, ^### – ^#### p < 0.001–0.0001 vs. ipsilateral hemisphere of vehicle group (two-way ANOVA for repeated measures followed by Holm-Sidak's multiple comparisons test). LDF: laser Doppler flowmetry; CSD: cortical spreading depolarization; Cox-2: Cyclooxygenase-2; IL-1β: interleukin-1β; CCL2: chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2; TNF-α: tumor necrosis factor-α.