Fig. 5
Perisomatic PV+ and VGLUT1+ reactivity and the effects of PLZ treatment in established EAE. a–c Representative confocal z-projections of PV+ somas and terminals (green) in layers 2/3 of S1, in control (CFA), VEH-treated EAE (21 dpi, VEH), and PLZ-treated EAE (21 dpi, PLZ) animals (treated from 7 dpi). White arrowheads indicate PV+ somas; magenta arrowheads indicate putative pyramidal-neuron “shadows” targeted for quantification. d Group mean (±S.E.) normalized density values corresponding to perisomatic PV+ staining surrounding layer 2/3 neurons in S1. Control (CFA) (n = 8), VEH-treated EAE (n = 4), and PLZ-treated EAE (n = 4) animals did not differ from each another at this time point (one-way ANOVA not significant, p = 0.661). e–g Representative fluorescence photomicrographs of VGLUT1+ staining (red) in layers 2/3 of S1; in control (CFA), VEH-treated EAE (21 dpi, VEH), and PLZ-treated EAE (21 dpi, PLZ) animals (treated from 7 dpi). DAPI (cell-nuclei) counter-stain is shown in blue. h Group mean (±S.E.) integrated densities of VGLUT1+ stained CFA (n = 5), EAE-VEH (n = 5), and EAE-PLZ (n = 4) animals. VEH-treated EAE animals retained strongly increased VGLUT1+ density in layer 2/3 S1 vs. CFA controls. PLZ treatment from 7 dpi significantly reduced VGLUT1+ density in EAE animals but did not normalize to CFA-levels (one-way ANOVA, p = 0.014, all pairwise post hoc comparisons performed by Holm-Sidak method). i–k Representative fluorescence photomicrographs of VGLUT1+ staining (red) in layers 4/5 of S1; in control (CFA), VEH-treated EAE (21 dpi, VEH), and PLZ-treated EAE (21 dpi, PLZ) animals (treated from 7 dpi.). DAPI (cell-nuclei) counter-stain is shown in blue. l Group mean (±S.E.) integrated densities of VGLUT1+ stained CFA (n = 5), EAE-VEH (n = 5), and EAE-PLZ (n = 4) animals. VEH-treated EAE animals retained strongly increased VGLUT1+ density in layers 4/5 of S1 vs. CFA controls. PLZ treatment from 7 dpi significantly reduced VGLUT1+ density in EAE animals but did not normalize to CFA-levels (one-way ANOVA, p = 0.007, all pairwise post hoc comparisons performed by Holm-Sidak method)