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Figure 5 | Journal of Neuroinflammation

Figure 5

From: Cyclooxygenase-2 mediates microglial activation and secondary dopaminergic cell death in the mouse MPTP model of Parkinson's disease

Figure 5

TH-positive neuronal counts have strong negative correlation with the number of Mac-1-stained activated microglia and COX-2. Figures 5A-D show results from the study from valdecoxib-treated mice and Figures 5E-H show results from the study from COX-2-deficient mice. The results from the correlation matrix shown in panels A and E are tabulated in panels B and F, respectively. As expected, the number of viable TH-positive neurons was strongly correlated with the number of neurons counted with the Nissl stain (r > 0.90). Importantly, the number of activated microglia was strongly negatively correlated with TH- and Nissl-stained neurons, both r ≈ -0.80 (p < 0.05, Pearson correlation test, n = 6–8 per group). The result from the correlation matrix shown in C is indicated in D. Similar analysis as in A and B was used, but included only MPTP-treated values and assigned value of 0 for no treatment and 10, 30 and 50 for increasing dosage of valdecoxib. The results were similar to those of A and B with a positive correlation of the amount of daily valdecoxib to TH- and Nissl-stained neuronal numbers (both rs ≥ 0.80) and a strong negative correlation of the dosage of valdecoxib to microglial activation (rs = -0.841, p < 0.05 Spearman correlation statistic, n = 6–8 per group). The result from the correlation matrix shown in G is indicated in H. A similar analysis as in E and F was used, but included only MPTP-treated values and assigned values of 1.0, 0.5 and 0.0 to COX-2 WT, HT and KO, respectively. The results were similar to those of E and F with strong negative correlation of COX-2 to TH- and Nissl-stained neuronal numbers (both rs ≈ -0.90) and strong positive correlation of COX-2 to microglial activation (rs = 0.886, p < 0.05 Spearman correlation statistic, n = 6–8 per group).

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