Fig. 3.

Crocin enhanced adult neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity in hippocampus. (A) Images of DCX⁺/BrdU⁺ immunohistochemistry after crocin treatment. Scale bar: 100 μm. (B) Sholl analysis of DCX⁺/BrdU⁺ neurons on crocin-treated or control group. (C-E) Chronic crocin administration significantly increased DCX⁺/BrdU⁺ cells, intersection number and dendritic length. (F-G) Dendritic spine density in DG region of hippocampus. Scale bar: 10 μm. (H) Crocin improved the ACSF–LTP recording of the last 10 min. Results are presented as mean ± SEM. Unpaired student’s t-test. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01; ns, no significance.