Fig 7. CD44 expression during astrocyte depletion.

Immunohistochemistry targeting the cell-surface glycoprotein CD44 was used to evaluate the anchoring of extracellular matrix to astrocytes. Statistical analysis revealed a significant reduction of CD44 positive area in TMEV infected, ganciclovir treated, GFAP-transgenic (GSTG) mice compared to all control groups (A-C). A reduction of the CD44 labeled area in the ventral spinal cord white matter of GSTG animals (asterisk, A) compared to a diffuse and circumferential immunolabelling in control animals (B, C) was detected. For each antibody, one cross section of the thoracic spinal cord was evaluated per animal. Data are shown as scatter dot plots. The horizontal bar indicates the mean. Significant differences between GSTG and the control groups obtained by Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Mann–Whitney U post hoc tests are indicated by *, p ≤ 0.05. Bars represent 100 μm.