Fig. 6

Rapamycin alleviates LPS-induced neuroinflammation in hippocampus and cortex of mice. Different doses of rapamycin (0.25, 0.5, 1 nmol for each mouse) were administered via intracerebroventricular injection 15 min before 5 μg LPS administration. The hippocampus levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α (a), IL-1β (b), and IL-6 (c), and the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 (d) were measured by ELISA. e The ability of rapamycin to alleviate LPS-induced microglial activation was measured by staining Iba1 in dentate gyrus (DG) of hippocampus and cortex of mice. The white boxed areas are shown enlarged in the bottom left of each image. Graphs show the numbers of Iba1-positive microglia in DG (f) and cortex (i), the average process length of Iba1-positive microglia in DG (g) and cortex (j), and the number microglial endpoints in DG (h) and cortex (k). Data are presented as mean ± SEM. ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001 vs sham; ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, ^###p < 0.001 vs LPS. Scale bar: 100 μm