Figure 7

Reduced glial fibrillary acidic protein expression in IL-1βKO white matter after spinal cord compression injury. (A), (B) Quantification of the intensity of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactivity in the entire dorso-ventral axis of the spinal cord from 600 μm cranial to 600 μm caudal to the lesion center (LC) in a standardized, 100 μm wide, area showed no significant difference in astrocytic reactions between PBS-treated and recombinant IL-1β (rIL-1β)-treated animals (A) or between wildtype controls and IL-1βKO animals (B). (C) Representative micrographs of spinal cord sections stained with GFAP showing the perilesional astroglia distribution for the four different study conditions. Upper panels: comparison of PBS-treated and rIL-1β-treated spinal cord. Lower panels: comparison of wildtype control with IL-1βKO spinal cord. (D) Quantification of GFAP intensity in a standardized area limited to the white matter (wm) shows a significant difference of more than 60% in immunoreactivity and astroglia expression when using IL-1βKO mice compared with controls. (E) Higher magnification of the boxes in (C) representing GFAP expression in the white matter of control and KO mice. *P <0.05; n = 5 mice (PBS), n = 5 mice (rIL-1β), n = 7 mice (C57BL6/J), n = 5 mice (IL-1βKO). Scale bar = 100 μm.