Fig. 7

Aldara treatment causes a reduction of adult neurogenesis and a suppression of burrowing activity. Mice were treated with 80-mg Aldara cream or control cream every 24 h for one, three or five consecutive days and were euthanised 24 h after the final application. a Brains were isolated from mice after five applications of Aldara and were formalin fixed and paraffin embedded. Seven micrometre sections were cut and immunostained for DCX and were visualised using a fluorescent microscope at ×400 magnification b Blind counts of three areas of the dentate gyrus were performed for each section to determine the quantity of new neurons. c Burrowing activity was determined 4 h after one, two and three treatments of Aldara cream. Data are presented as the weight of material left in the burrowing tube after a 2-h test period. n = 5 mice per group for neurogenesis (mean of three areas from 11/12 sections per group), n = 10 mice per group for burrowing assessment. Significance was determined using unpaired student’s t test (b) or two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni multiple comparison post-tests (c). ***p ≤ 0.001 **p ≤ 0.01