Fig. 5

Post-injury administration of Pom at 5 h after TBI decreased annexin V-positive neurons at 8 and 24 h. a Immunofluorescence of annexin V and NeuN in cortical brain tissue at 8 h post-injury. Annexin V immunoreactivity (a marker of early apoptosis) is shown in green; NeuN (a marker for mature neurons) is shown in red. Merged red and green cells are shown as yellow, which highlights dual labeled cells suggesting an apoptotic neuronal state. Cells illustrated in the inset box in the lower right section of the merged images are magnified examples of the cells indicated in the smaller observation box. b Treatment with Pom significantly reduced the number of dual stained annexin V-positive neurons, indicating a lower incidence of apoptotic neurons. Similar observations are shown for tissues obtained from animals euthanized at 24 h post-TBI (c, d). TBI induced a significant number of apoptotic neurons at 24 h post-injury, and treatment with Pom significantly reduced the numbers of apoptotic neurons compared with TBI + veh. Mean ± S.E.M. (n=5 in each group). **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 compared with the sham group. ^## p < 0.01, ^### p < 0.001 compared with the TBI + veh group. Scale bar = 100 μm