Fig. 1

Masitinib prevented microglia proliferation by inhibiting CSF-1R. a Microglia cultured from symptomatic SOD1^G93A rat spinal cord in low FBS conditions (0.5 %) adding 30 ng/mL of M-CSF with indicated masitinib concentrations. The insets show the hypertrophic vacuolated cells in vehicle and M-CSF conditions and the small rounded cells after masitinib treatment (scale bars: contrast 20 μm and DAPI/BrdU 50 μm). b The graph shows the quantitative BrdU analysis where positive cells were counted and expressed as percentage of total cells stained with DAPI. M-CSF treatment produced a significant increase in microglial proliferation that was blocked by masitinib. c Kinase inhibition assay showing that masitinib inhibited CSF-1R with an IC₅₀ = 90 ± 35 nM. All data are expressed as mean ± SEM *p < 0.01