Fig. 8

Unaltered iba-1 immunostaining in the VPL, cVPM, MD, and IL as well as unaltered number of iba-1-positive cells in the VPL 28 days after spinal nerve ligation. Microphotographs are examples of iba-1 immunostaining (green) and DAPI staining (deep blue) in the cVPL (A) in naïve, sham, and SNL animals 28 days after the beginning of the experiments. White arrows point at iba-1/DAPI-positive cells (part of the cell body appears in turquoise, that is to say a mix of green and deep blue). Morphometric analysis conducted on the VPL (contralateral, B1: one-way ANOVA F(2, 11) = 0.489, p = 0.626; ipsilateral, B2: one-way ANOVA F(2, 11) = 0.7396, p = 0.4996) and on the VPL subregion (contralateral, C1: one-way ANOVA F(2, 11) = 0.3216, p = 0.7316; ipsilateral, C2: one-way ANOVA F(2, 11) = 0.6745, p = 0.5293) reveals that iba-1 immunofluorescent surfaces are unchanged under treatment (naïve and SNL: n = 5, sham: n = 4, 3 slices per animal). Quantification of iba-1/DAPI-positive cells in the VPL (contralateral, D1: one-way ANOVA F(2, 11) = 0.5755, p = 0.5785; ipsilateral, D2: one-way ANOVA F(2, 11) = 0.1196, p = 0.8884) by using an optical disector method of stereological counting (cell number per volume unit) and in the VPL subregion (contralateral, E1: one-way ANOVA F(2, 11) = 0.4605, p = 0.6426; ipsilateral, E2: one-way ANOVA F(2, 11) = 3.934, p = 0.0514) by using a conventional method (cell number per surface area unit) reveals no significant difference between experimental conditions. Microphotographs in F are examples of iba-1 immunostaining (green) in the cVPM in naïve, sham, and SNL animals twenty eight days after the beginning of the experiments. Morphometric analysis reveals that the treatment does not alter the iba-1 immunofluorescent surfaces in the cVPM (G: one-way ANOVA F(2, 11) = 0.04787, p = 0.9535), MD (H: one-way ANOVA F(2, 11) = 0.1803, p = 0.8375), and IL (I: one-way ANOVA F(2, 11) = 0.05713, p = 0.9447)