Fig. 2.

METH exposure and EcoHIV infection enhance NPC proliferation in the SVZ. a Visualization of proliferating NPCs in the SVZ. C57BL/6 mice were i.p. injected with BrdU (150 μg/g) once a day for two consecutive days before being sacrificed. Frozen brain sections were co-immunostained with anti-Sox2 and anti-BrdU antibodies to verify the presence of proliferating NPCs in the SVZ. Arrowheads indicate BrdU-positive cells (green) and arrows indicate Sox2 and BrdU-double-positive cells (yellow). Scale bar, 50 μm. b Timeline employed in animal studies. Mice were injected i.p. with BrdU as in (a) on the last two days of METH exposure, followed by EcoHIV (or control retrovirus, ConV) infusion. Brains were collected and processed for frozen sectioning two weeks after EcoHIV infusion. c Representative images of proliferating cells in the SVZ from the control and METH plus EcoHIV brains. BrdU-positive cells (green) are identified by arrows. d Relative number of Sox 2 and BrdU-double-positive cells in SVZ. Mice were exposed as in (b), then, the SVZ regions were immunostained for Sox2 and BrdU and double-positive cells were counted. N=4–5 mice per group; two-way ANOVA;*, p<0.05, **, p<0.01, and ***, p<0.005