Fig. 7

ROCK2 activity affected microglial morphological changes and iNOS expression in the TNC following NTG injection. a Iba-1 immunostaining in the TNC following NTG and fasudil administration. Scale bar: 20 μm. b, d Quantification of Iba-1 immunoreactivity (b) and Iba-1-positive cells (d) in the TNC. Data are presented as mean ± SEM; n = 4 per group; six sections from each mouse; **p < 0.01 compared with the sham group. c Magnified images of Iba-1 in the area enclosed in the white dotted line frame in a. e, f Quantitative analysis of the mean length of initial processes (e) and the total length of initial processes (f) per microglia. Data are presented as mean ± SEM, and a total of 224 cells (75 cells in the sham group, 77 cells in the NTG group, 72 cells in the NTG + Fas group) were analyzed. **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001 compared with the sham group; ^#p < 0.05 and ^##p < 0.01 compared with the NTG group. g Representative immunoblots of iNOS showing that the ROCK2 inhibitor fasudil reduced the production of iNOS induced by NTG in the TNC. Values are presented as mean ± SEM; n = 6 per group; **p < 0.01 compared with the sham group; ^#p < 0.05 compared with the NTG group