Fig. 5

The effects of repeated applications of LA on the expression of Iba-1 in the ipsilateral SDH on POD 6. a, b Western blot analysis showing that LA dose-dependently suppressed the elevated Iba-1 induced by SNI. a Typical blotting trace. b Summary of the blotting results. n = 5. c–g Immunohistochemical staining showing the distribution of Iba-1 IR in five groups. c Typical picture in a vehicle treated sham rat. Iba-1-positive microglia were evenly distributed in the SDH, except for the lateral border of the superficial dorsal horn (marked by asterisk). d Sham group treated with 30 μM of LA. e Vehicle-treated SNI group, showing that nerve injury caused strong detection of Iba-1 IR in the medial two thirds of SDH, mainly laminae I-V. f, g Typical Iba-1 staining in SNI rats treated with 10 μM (f) or 30 μM (g) of LA, showing that i.t. application of LA markedly repressed the intensity of Iba-1 IR. Scale bar, 100 μm. h Summary of averaged gray value for Iba-1 staining in the SDH in five groups. Relative gray value was calculated as the ratio of averaged gray value in the ipsilateral side (mainly covering laminae I-V) to that in the contralateral side. n = 3. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 vs. sham + veh group; ^#p < 0.05, ^###p < 0.001 vs. SNI + veh group