Fig. 10.

Reduced GFAP immunoreactivity in brain regions with enlarged paravascular spaces of blast-exposed rats at 13 months post-blast exposure. Coronal brain sections from blast-exposed a, b and control c, d rats were immunostained with antibodies against GFAP (green) and counterstained with DAPI (blue in merged images, b, d). GFAP immunoreactivity was greatly reduced in the thalamus and hypothalamus of blast-exposed animals harboring enlarged paravascular spaces (arrow in a). e, f Abnormally high perivascular astrocytic density in a few large vessels in the entorhinal cortex of blast-exposed rats. Section in e was single-stained with GFAP (green) and f was double-stained for GFAP (green) and collagen type IV without protease pre-treatment (red,). DAPI (blue). Panel f also shows GFAP⁺ (green) cells under the adventitial collagen type IV (red). Scale bars, 320 µm a, b, d, e; 16 µm c, f