Fig. 11

Effects of higher-dose minocycline treatment on markers of reactive astrogliosis after photothrombotic stroke. a, b A large increase in vimentin content in peri-infarct tissue over the first 7 days following photothrombotic stroke in untreated rats was detected by a area fraction of vimentin-positive cells and b Western blotting. The area fraction of vimentin immunolabeling was markedly increased by 2 days and further increased at 3 and 7 days after stroke (n = 4 per group at each time); *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 vs. corresponding contralateral region (one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s HSD). c Double immunolabeling of GFAP and vimentin in peri-infarct tissue at 3 days after photothrombotic stroke. Vimentin (red) is expressed almost exclusively in cells also expressing GFAP (green). Yellow shows colocalization. The scale bar = 100 μm. d–e Effect of higher-dose minocycline treatment on expression of astroglial proteins in samples containing infarct plus peri-infarct tissue at 7 days following photothrombotic stroke (n = 6 per group). d The intermediate filament proteins, vimentin and GFAP. e Neurocan. The band intensities for vimentin (54 kDa) and GFAP (50 kDa) were normalized to actin (45 kDa). There was a significant effect of minocycline treatment on both vimentin and GFAP content (**p < 0.01). The intensity of bands for full-length neurocan (approx. 250 kDa) were determined relative to that of a proteolytic fragment of this protein (approx. 150 kDa). No statistically significant effects were detected in the neurocan protein ratio in tissue from the minocycline-treated rats compared with the vehicle-treated rats