Fig. 6

Effects of resistance exercise on microglial activation. a Representative confocal photographs taken with a × 20 objective lens showing the Iba-1-positive microglia (green) and DAPI (blue) in the frontal cortex and different sub-regions of hippocampus. Scale bar: 100 μm (for zoomed in images, scale bar = 20 μm). The number of microglia in each brain region was measured using ImageJ. b Cell count of Iba-1-positive microglia in the frontal cortex and different sub-regions of the hippocampus. c Cell body size of microglia in the frontal cortex and different subregions of the hippocampus. For each mouse, data represent the mean value of three brain slices. d Representative confocal photographs taken with a × 20 objective lens showing the GFAP positive astrocyte (red) and DAPI (blue) in the different sub-regions of hippocampus. Scale bar: 100 μm. e Quantification of immunofluorescent intensity of the GFAP signal. f Morphological analysis of astrocytes, the representative picture showing the morphological feactures of astrocytes that were marked with arrows in picture d. g–j The result of morphological analysis of astrocyte in DG region. (unpaired Student’s t test, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, compared to sedentary mice. n = 5 and 4 for IBA-1 and GFAP staining, respectively. Data presented as mean ± SEM. SED sedentary, RE resistance exercise