Fig. 8

Cn infection induces only minor astrocytic responses in the hippocampus of IL-6^−/− mice. Histological examinations of the hippocampus from brains removed from Cn-infected Wild-type, IL-6^−/−, and IL-6^−/− + rIL-6 mice (n = 3 mice per group) at (A) 3- and (D) 7-dpi. Uninfected mice were used as tissue baseline controls (not shown). Representative 10X (top panel; scale bar = 200 μm), 40X (central panel; scale bar = 50 μm), and 100X (bottom panel; scale bar = 50 μm) magnifications of glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP)-binding MAb-stained sections of the brain are shown. Black rectangular boxes delineate the area magnified (top to bottom panels). Brown staining indicates astrocytes. Black arrows indicate astrocytic processes. Processes per astrocyte [(B) 3-dpi: Wild-type, n = 105 cells; IL-6^−/−, n = 93 cells; IL-6^−/− + rIL-6, n = 103 cells; (E) 7-dpi: Wild-type, n = 91 cells; IL-6^−/−, n = 92 cells; IL-6^−/− + rIL-6, n = 71 cells] and astrocyte process thickness (in µm; (C) 3-dpi: Wild-type, n = 284 processes; IL-6^−/−, n = 305 processes; IL-6^−/− + rIL-6, n = 290 processes; (F) 7-dpi: Wild-type, n = 326 processes; IL-6^−/−, n = 355 processes; IL-6^−/− + rIL-6, n = 352 processes) were determined in hippocampal tissue sections using an inverted microscope. For B-C and E-F, violin plots denote the means (dashed lines) and replicate distributions. Asterisks denote significance (****, P < 0.0001; ***, P < 0.001) as calculated by one-way ANOVA and adjusted using Tukey’s post-hoc analysis. ns denotes comparisons which are not statistically significant