Fig. 1

Blocking glycine receptor with strychnine reduces activation of microglia and astrocytes and normalizes the content in TNFα and IL1β in cerebellum from hyperammonemic (HA) rats. Immunohistochemistry was performed in cerebellar slices from control and hyperammonemic rats treated or not with strychnine as indicated in methods with DAB staining using antibodies against IBA1 (a) and GFAP (b). Hyperammonemic rats show altered morphology of microglia and astrocytes stained indicating activation. Treatment with strychnine reduces activation. To analyze the activation of microglia the area (c) and perimeter (d) of the cells was measured using the Image J analysis software as described in the “Methods” section. The GFAP stained area was measured as an indicator of astrocytes activation (e) as described in methods. The content of TNFα (f) and IL1β (g) was measured by western blot. Values are the mean ± SEM of 6 rats per group in a-e and of 13–30 rats per group in f-g. Values significantly different from control rats are indicated by asterisk and from hyperammonemic rats are indicated by “a”. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ****p < 0.0001; a p < 0.05, aa p < 0.01, aaaa p < 0.0001. Data were analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Turkey post hoc