Skip to main content
. 2021 Jan 22;13:574041. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2020.574041

FIGURE 7.

FIGURE 7

Rapamycin alters the activation of astrocytes and glial scar formation at the epicenter of spinal cord after injury. (A) Astrocytes were activated, and glial scar was formed at the epicenter after injury. The areas of spared tissues indicated by glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) + on the ipsilateral side were significantly decreased in the two injured groups compared with the sham group (B), while the spared tissue on contralateral side showed no significant differences among the three groups (C). Representative high-magnification images on the ipsilateral and contralateral sides of the spinal cord are shown in (D). Quantitation of GFAP densities showed that GFAP densities were significantly increased in the two injured group compared with the sham group after spinal cord injury (SCI) (E–G). There were significant differences in GFAP density of the whole spinal cord and the ipsilateral side between the rapamycin and vehicle groups (E,F), but there was no significant difference in GFAP density of the contralateral side between the two groups (G). WPI, weeks post-injury; Rapa, the rapamycin group; Veh, the vehicle group; Sham, the sham group. Scale bar = 200 μm (A) and 20 μm (D). ∗P < 0.05, ∗∗P < 0.01, ∗∗∗P < 0.001, nsP > 0.05. Error bars are mean ± SEM.