Fig. 4

The upregulation of neuroinflammatory factors in the hippocampus induced by LPS was blocked by pretreatment with IL-1β shRNA lentivirus in mice. a Mouse hippocampus samples were examined by using immunofluorescent analysis; sections were labeled with anti-IL-1β antibody (red) and with fluorescent nuclear DAPI staining (blue) and visualized using a fluorescence microscope. Scale bar = 50 μm. b Quantification of the IL-1β optical density per pixel was significantly decreased by IL-1β shRNA lentivirus and showed that the upregulation of IL-1β levels induced by LPS was significantly alleviated by the IL-1β shRNA lentivirus in mice. c, d The hippocampal IL-1β protein expression was significantly decreased by LPS, and the IL-1β shRNA lentivirus alleviated this effect. e The upregulation of TNF-α in the hippocampus induced by LPS was significantly alleviated by pretreatment with IL-1β shRNA lentivirus in mice. The data are expressed as the mean ± S.E.M (n = 3 per group for western blotting and n = 6 per group for immunofluorescent analysis or ELISA). *p < 0.05 or **p < 0.01 compared with the NS shRNA plus saline group; ##p < 0.01 compared with the NS shRNA + LPS group