Fig. 6

Examining TBI and age-related astrocyte-specific responses. a Gene expression responses for the 8 groups were quantified via custom TaqMan low density array (TLDA) cards, comprising 44 genes of interest that spanned previously defined categorical bins attributed to “Pan-reactive” (black bar), “Synaptic modifying” (magenta bar), “LPS-associated” (“A1,” blue bar), or “MCAO-associated” (“A2,” green bar) responses of astrocytes. Neither TBI nor advanced age were exclusively confined to either of the A1/A2 phenotypes, whereas the bulk of significant deviations from young-sham were found within the “Pan-reactive” or “Synaptic modifying” gene sets. Each square shows the mean Z-score of log₂ expression as a gene/group representation. b Representative subset of genes for each category demonstrates age-related pairwise comparisons. Gene expression data are relative to young sham values. All data were log₂ transformed. For a, data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA with Dunnet’s post hoc correction, with young sham defined as the “control” value. Data are presented as the mean Z-score for each gene, with orange representing positive values, and blue representing negative values. The star symbol (★) denotes P < 0.05 relative to young sham. For b, data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA with Sidak-Holm correct to examine pairwise age-related interactions with *P < 0.05 or **P < 0.01 indicating significant effects due to age within the pairwise comparison interval. n = 4–5/group. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM