Fig. 3
BBB tight junction protein integrity corresponds with perforin gene dosage. Following MRI, brains from perforin−/−, perforin+/−, and perforin+/+ mice that were administered the TMEV antigenic peptide VP2121-130 to induce BBB disruption or control peptide E7 were harvested and fresh frozen. a Slices were stained for nuclei (Hoechst), blood (fibrinogen), and cerebral endothelial cell tight junction protein (claudin-5), as labeled on the image. Representative 60× images are shown for each genotype (rows) and peptide exposure (columns). The area of fibrinogen leak was quantified by the following equation: (total area of claudin-5 stain) − (total area of fibrinogen stain) = (total area of leakage). b Total area was measured using ImageJ with the units of pixels. The group sizes were as follows: n = 4 perforin−/− mice E7 peptide and n = 3 for all other genotypes and peptide exposure. Significance was determined using a one-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc test. p < 0.05 considered statistically significant