Figure 5.

EA pretreatment prevented increases in dendritic spine density induced by 2 weeks of cocaine administration. (A) Timeline for the experimental procedure. (B) On Day 15, the mice were sacrificed for Golgi-Cox staining. Representative laser confocal photomicrographs of dendritic processes were obtained from the NAc of all mice in each group. The white boxes indicate the areas of interest examined under 100× and 1000× magnification conditions, respectively. (C, D) Bar graphs showing levels of spine density in the NAc core and shell. Statistical testing was performed by two-way ANOVA with post-hoc t-testing. All groups were anesthetized and maintained under 1.5% isoflurane inhalation. All data are expressed as the means ± S.E.M. (n = 4 mice per group, 20 fragments each measuring 10 µm obtained from 3 to 5 neurons per sample). ***p < 0.001 versus Control group, ^#p < 0.05, ^###p < 0.001 versus CO group. Abbreviations: Control = Saline only; EA = EA and saline treatment; CO = cocaine treatment only; CO + EA = EA treatment followed by i.p. cocaine (30 mg/kg).