Fig. 1

Effects of stress factors on total microglia and morphological subtype density in E14 cortical plate. Potential maternal stress factors included glucocorticoid stress hormone, corticosterone (Cort), and pro-inflammatory cytokine, IL-1β. a Microglia morphological subtypes (Iba1 in red and DAPI in blue). Scale bars 10 and 100 μm. b Corticosterone increased total and amoeboid microglia, but did not recapitulate the most significant effect of prenatal stress (solid line), increased multivacuolated microglia. c IL-1β increased total and amoeboid microglia. IL-1β increased multivacuolated microglia, but not to the extent of prenatal stress. (*p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 compared to oil or saline). Previous findings on microglia density indicated by dotted line for non-stress (NS) and solid line for prenatal stress (PS) levels, [13].