Fig. 7
Atorvastatin reduces NMO pathology in an experimental animal model of NMO produced by passive transfer of AQP4-IgG. a Experimental protocol. Mice received atorvastatin 20 mg/kg/day for 3 days, or saline vehicle, prior to intracerebral injection of 7.5 μg AQP4-IgG and 1 μL human complement. Mice were sacrificed on day 6. b Immunofluorescence of AQP4, MBP, and Iba-1 in the brain at day 6 showing AQP4-IgG-injected hemisphere from control and atorvastatin-treated mice. Representative of experiments on 4–5 mice per group. c Immunofluorescence of activated complement proteins C3d and C5b-9 at day 6 from control and atorvastatin-treated mice. Representative of staining done on 4–5 mice per group. d Summary of lesion areas (AQP4, c5b-9, MBP, in mm2) and Iba-1 cell positivity (positive cells per 0.01 mm2), showing data from individual mice (mean ± SEM, n = 4–5, **P < 0.01, unpaired Student’s t test, compared with vehicle)