Figure 3
Increased Iba1 protein up-regulation in transgenic rats at 21 days after PSNL. (A-D) Immunohistological staining of the microglial marker Iba1 at 21 days after surgery, on the ipsilateral side of the lumbar spinal cord with a low and high magnification. (A,B) Microglia in both WT (A) and transgenic (B) sham groups showed a ramified morphology. After PSNL, microglia exhibited a hypertrophied morphology, an effect which was found to be stronger in transgenic rats (D) as compared to WT rats (C) (scale bar represents 500 μm). (E,F) Quantification of the percentage of the total dorsal horn showing positive Iba1 immunostaining. On the ipsilateral side (E), Iba1 protein up-regulation was found to be stronger in transgenic compared to WT rats after PSNL ($$$ p< 0.001; # p< 0.05). The contralateral side (F) showed a modest Iba1 up-regulation only in transgenic rats at 21 days after PSNL ($ p< 0.05; ## p< 0.01). (G) The percentage of change in PWL from baseline on post-operative day 21 appeared to be correlated with the level of Iba1 up-regulation (R2 = 0.63 and p< 0.001). WT groups included 4 animals whereas hSOD1G93A groups included 6 animals; ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc test for statistical analyses.