Fig. 3

Histopathologic analysis of the adrenal glands upon EAE. A, B Bar plots showing the distributions of weight and adreno-somatic index values for adrenal glands isolated from EAE and control mice at 20 dpi. C Representative H&E sections at low and high magnification of adrenal glands from EAE and control mice at 20 dpi. Cortex (C) and medulla (M) are indicated in the low magnification images, while the zona glomerulosa (ZG), zona fasciculata (ZF) and X-zone (XZ) layers are identified in the high magnification images. Magnification = 10 ×, scale bar = 200 μm (top) and magnification = 40 ×, scale bar = 50 μm (bottom). D Quantification of the size of whole adrenal glands and sub-anatomical regions between EAE and control mice. E Quantification of the thickness of the different layers in adrenal glands between EAE and control mice. Differences between experimental groups (N = 5–6 per group from two EAE immunizations) were assessed by Mann–Whitney U-test. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01; ***P ≤ 0.005