Fig. 1

Comparison of astrogliosis between wild-type and T cell-conditional α4^−/− mice at the peak of EAE. Transverse lumbar spinal cord (a–d) and sagittal brainstem (e, f) sections from wild-type and T cell-conditional α4^−/− mice were stained for GFAP to assess astrocyte reactivity. Higher density of GFAP⁺ cells was observed in the gray matter of the spinal cord of wild-type (a) compared to T cell-conditional α4^−/− mice (b). Phenotypically distinct astrocytes were seen at higher magnification in wild-type (c) and T cell-conditional α4^−/− mice (d). Astrogliosis was comparable in the cerebellum of wild-type (e) and T cell-conditional α4^−/− mice (f). Bars = 200 μm (a, b), 50 μm (c, d), and 100 μm (e, f). Representative images for wild-type and α4^−/− mice (n = 6). Intensity GFAP fluorescence from the spinal cord (g) and cerebellum (h) was quantified using ImageJ software. The mean gray value of a selected area was measured after subtracting the background of 8-bit grayscale image and is plotted here. Each point represents data from one mouse. Here, we used the Mann-Whitney test for statistics; **p < 0.01