Figure 2

Representative photomicrographs of TH (A to C, SN) and APP (D to F, striatum) immunostaining in the rat brain after LPS injection. TH positive staining was detected in the SN area (A) of the midbrain sections at a level one-third rostral from the lambda to the bregma in the control rat brain. LPS injection caused a loss of TH positive staining (B). Celecoxib attenuated the LPS-induced loss of TH positive staining (C). Weak APP positive staining was detectable in the brain sections at the bregma level of the control brain (D). The beaded APP staining was found in the striatum (E) of the LPS-exposed brain. Celecoxib treatment attenuated the LPS-induced injury to axons in the striatum (F). The scale bar shown in A represents 200 μm for A to C, or shown in D represents 50 μm for D to F. Quantitation of the number of TH positive cells in the SN (G), and the percentage area of image that contained APP + staining in the cingulum white matter and the striatum were performed as described in Methods. The results are expressed as the mean ± SEM of six animals in each group, and analyzed by one-way ANOVA. *P <0.05 represents a significant difference for the LPS + Vehicle group or LPS + Celecoxib group as compared with the Saline + Vehicle group. ^# P <0.05 represents a significant difference for the LPS + Celecoxib group as compared with the LPS + Vehicle group.