Fig. 5.

Parvalbumin in PND60 cortex. Parvalbumin (PV) immunohistochemistry in cortex of DE- and FA-exposed mice. PV is a calcium-binding albumin protein expressed by interneurons localized to cortical layer II/III [5, 35]. (a, b) Representative images of PV-positive cells (red), counterstained with the nuclear stain DAPI (blue), from FA- and DE-exposed males. In DE-exposed males a statistically significant increase in PV-positive cell density was found in bins 5 and 9 (cortical layers IV and VI) when compared to FA-exposed males (c, d). No significant differences in PV-positive cell distribution were found between FA- and DE-exposed female mice (c, d). Results represent the mean (± SE) of 5 mice from different litters for each experimental group; 3-5 sections/mouse were examined (*p < 0.05; unpaired T test with Welch’s correction)