Fig. 3

MS enhanced the activation of astrocytes and the astroglial NF-κB signaling pathway induced by 3% sevoflurane anesthesia for 2 h in the hippocampus. a Sevoflurane anesthesia increased the fluorescence intensity of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and phosphorylated nuclear factor-kappa B (p-NF-κB p65) in the CA1 area of the hippocampus at 12 h after anesthesia in both the sevoflurane group and MS + sevoflurane group, and the fluorescence intensity of GFAP and p-NF-κB p65 in the MS + sevoflurane group was obviously higher than that in the sevoflurane group. Double immunofluorescence staining showed that p-NF-κB p65 (green) mainly co-localized (merged) with GFAP-positive reactive astrocytes (red) in the CA1 area of the hippocampus. b The changes in the fluorescence intensity of GFAP and p-NF-κB p65 in the DG area of the hippocampus were similar to those in the CA1 area of the hippocampus. ^* P < 0.05, ^** P < 0.01 versus control; ^## P < 0.01 versus MS; ⁺⁺ P < 0.01 MS + sevoflurane versus sevoflurane. Error bars represent the means ± SD (n = 6). Statistical analyses were performed by one-way ANOVA followed by Student–Newman–Keuls post hoc test. CA1 cornu ammonis 1, DG dentate gyrus; bar = 100 μm