Figure 6.

Morphometric analysis of dendritic arbors from hilar hippocampus treated with okadaic acid and melatonin. Treated rat hippocampal organotypic cultures were fixed and 50 µm cryosections were processed for specific detection of somatodendritic MAP2 by immunohistochemistry. Acquired images were analyzed by the modified Sholl method to measure primary dendrite properties: (a) number, (b) length and (c) thickness, and dendrite complexity: (d) number and (e) length of secondary dendrites, as well as (f) number of nodes and (g) number of tips. The treatments corresponded to vehicle (VEH), 45 nM okadaic acid (OKA), 100 nM melatonin (MEL), MEL before OKA (MEL + OKA), simultaneous MEL and OKA (MEL = OKA) or OKA before MEL (OKA + MEL). Measurements of 20 neurons per treatment are presented as the mean ± SEM and compared through ANOVA on Ranks and Student-Newman-Keuls test for multiple comparisons. * depicts p < 0.05.