Fig. 8.

Glial cell number increased in WT mice and Mecp2-heterozygous mice but not in Mecp2-null mice over the lifespan. No genotype differences were found for glial cell number (A) or glial cell density (B). Glial cell count increased with age in WT and Mecp2-het mice (age difference depicts with green+ for WT mice and blue+ for Mecp2-het mice) but not in Mecp2-null mice. (A) In WT mice, glial cell counts were higher at 14 weeks of age than at 4 weeks of age (+ +); at 20+ weeks cell count values were higher than at 4 or 7 weeks of age (+ +++, ++ respectively). In Mecp2-het mice glial cell counts at 14 weeks of age were higher than at 4 or 7 weeks (+++, ++ respectively); at 20+ weeks counts were higher than at 4 and 7 weeks (++, + respectively). (B) Glial cell density increased slightly with age, especially in the oldest WT and Mecp2-het mice. In WT mice, the density of glial cells at 20+ weeks of age was significantly higher than at 4 and 7 weeks of age. The numbers of symbols refer to p values (+ for both comparisons. +p0.05, ++p < 0.01, +++p < 0.001, ++++p < 0.0001).