Figure 5.

Poststroke microglia activation was greater in diabetic female animals. A: cell body size was increased in both cortex and striatum of diabetic animals indicating activation of microglia. DFX increased cell body size in controls and did not affect diabetic animals either in cortex or striatum (^aP < 0.01). Comparison of male and female diabetic rats indicated an increase in body size with DFX in both groups (A, inset). Process end points per cell (B), total branch length (C), and protrusions (D) were all lower in diabetic animals, indicating activation consistent with the loss of ramified morphology. DFX decreased these indices in controls and had no effect in diabetic animals (^bP < 0.001). Comparison of male and female diabetic rats suggested that DFX reverses these morphological changes in male but not male diabetic rats (B–D, insets). E and F: representative images of colocalization of microglia marker Iba1 with TNF-α or arginase 1 suggested that diabetes increases both proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory markers, respectively. DFX prevented TNF-α increase but had no effect on arginase 1. In the control group, DFX appeared to increase anti-inflammatory arginase 1. Results are shown as means ± SE and scattered graphs with individual data points. All panels were analyzed two-way ANOVA. C, control; D, diabetes; DFX, deferoxamine; F, female; M, male; Veh, vehicle.