Fig. 6

Astrocytic inhibition reverses LPS treatment induced neuronal and glial dysfunction in the late pathological stage in mice after etomidate sedative injection (3 weeks post etomidate sedative injection). (a) Graphic illustration of experimental procedure. Selected transcripts on regulation astrocytic activation (Pan-reactive, A1-specific, and A2-specific phenotype; b and c) were detected by qPCR. Flow cytometry were applied to analyze the cell purity of microglia after MACS isolation and qPCR were applied to evaluate selected transcripts associated with microglial polarization (microglial phenotype of M1, M2a, and M2b,2c) were detected by qPCR at the early stage (1 week post etomidate sedative injection; d and e) and late stage (3 week post etomidate sedative injection; f and g). During MWM test (3 weeks post etomidate sedative injection), we recorded (h) swim path and (i) analyzed swim speed and latency to find platform during visible and hidden platform training; (j) swim path and (k) time spent in each quadrant was investigated. l During NOR test, total time spent on object recognition and discrimination index were analyzed. Neuronal activities were detected by (m and n) sIPSC, sEPSC, (o and p) mIPSC, and mEPSC recording and analyzing (scale bar: 200 ms, 25 pA). (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 saline injected mice)