Fig. 6

Quantitative study of microglia-dendrimer interactions in CP and healthy brain slices. a Dendrimer uptake by microglial cells, expressed as percent of Iba1+ cells that co-localize with D-Cy5 as a function of time (mean ± SEM). Red: D-Cy5 uptake in microglia from CP brain slices; blue: D-Cy5 uptake in microglia from healthy brain slices. N = 3 slices/group. **p < 0.01. b Confocal image of dendrimer treated brain slices (CP, taken under ×63 magnification) at three different time points after D-Cy5 treatment (1, 4, 12 h) and healthy brain slices after 12 h of D-Cy5 treatment. Microglial cells in CP brain slices had greater dendrimer uptake (indicated by white arrow) than in healthy slices. The orthographic projection clearly indicated the dendrimer uptake by activated microglial cells in the brain slice from CP kit, while the dendrimer was barely seen to localize in microglial cells in the brain slice from healthy kit. Blue: DAPI, green: anti-Iba1 (antibody labeling microglia), red: D-Cy5. Scale bar, 50 μm