Figure 3. Ablation of NPY^DBH sympathetic cells caused an increase in LPS-induced TNF-α production.

(A-B) LPS induced a larger increase of TNF-α levels in NPY^DBH (peri.)-Abl mice compared with WT mice in serum and in spleen. Two-way ANOVA plus post-hoc Tukey test. Serum: F_{1, 20} = 13.457, P = 0.002; spleen: F_{1, 16} = 13.174, P < 0.001. ***P < 0.001; NS, not significant, P = 0.913 in A and 0.892 in B.

(C) TNF-α immunostaining images through splenic red pulps (“RP”) and white pulps (“WP”).

(D) TNF-α expression (by immunostaining) in splenic macrophages with indicated markers in LPS-treated wild type (WT) versus NPY^DBH (peri.)-Abl mice (two-side student’s unpaired t test; t₈ = 1.528 for F4/80, NS, not significant, P = 0.165; t₈ = 13.36 for CD169 and 12.22 for CD68, ***P < 0.001). Arrowheads indicate co-localized cells.

N = 5 mice for all groups. Data are shown as mean ± SEM. Scale bars, 100 μm.