Fig. 7

Ethanol and TLR7-induced neurodegeneration require HMGB1 release. a Hippocampal brain slice cultures were treated with ethanol or vehicle alone for 48 h followed by 24 h of ethanol withdrawal (WD) to induce neurotoxicity +/− HMGB1 antagonist glycyrrhizin (GLY, 100 μM). Ethanol resulted in neurotoxicity during withdrawal as assessed by propridium iodide uptake (35.5 ± 2.32 vs17.08 ± 2.5, mean ± SEM) ****p < 0.0001 vs control. GLY prevented neurotoxicity during withdrawal. ##p < 0.01. b Hippocampal brain slice cultures were treated with the TLR7 agonist imiquimod (IMQ, 10 μg/mL) or vehicle for 48 h +/− GLY (100 μM). Neurotoxicity was assessed by PI uptake. IMQ treatment caused neurodegeneration with a 67.6% increase in PI uptake. This was diminished greatly by GLY (97.4% reduction). **p < 0.01 vs control, #p < 0.05 vs IMQ alone. N = 7–10 slices per group