Fig. 3

Microglial depletion before etomidate injection rescues cognitive, neuronal, and glial dysfunction in the late pathological stage (3 weeks post etomidate injection and 4 weeks post PLX3397 diet). a Graphic illustration of experimental procedure. Flow cytometry were applied to analyze the efficiency of microglial elimination and qPCR were applied to evaluate selected transcripts associated with microglial polarization (microglial phenotype of M1, M2a, and M2b,2c) in hippocampus after PLX3397 treatment at the early stage (1 week post etomidate injection and 2 weeks post PLX3397 diet; b and c) and the late stage (3 weeks post etomidate injection and 4 weeks post PLX3397 diet; d and e). During MWM test (3 weeks post etomidate injection and 4 weeks post PLX3397 diet), we recorded (f) swim path and (g) analyzed swim speed and latency to find platform during visible and hidden platform training; (h) swim path and (i) time spent in each quadrant was investigated. (j) During NOR test, total time spent on object recognition and discrimination index were analyzed. Neuronal activities were detected by (k and l) sIPSC, sEPSC, (m and n) mIPSC, and mEPSC recording and analyzing (scale bar: 200 ms, 25 pA). Selected transcripts associated with astrocyte activation (Pan-reactive, A1-specific, and A2-specific phenotype; o and p) were detected by qPCR. (n = 12 per group for behavioral and electrophysiological assay; n = 3 for qPCR assay; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 compared with normal diet mice)