Fig. 3

Microglial depletion alleviates PTSD symptoms. a Schematic representation of experimental procedure. Tamoxifen was administrated 30 days before DT injection. DT was intraperitoneally injected on −TAM + DT + FS mice, and saline was injected as a control on –TAM − DT + FS mice. At days 3 and 4, foot-shocks were delivered to mice. At days 5, 11, and 17, contextual fear recall test was performed. At day 18, open-field test was performed. At day 19, elevated plus maze test was performed. b IHC staining shows microglia depletion efficiency after DT injection 3 days. c Statistic data shows microglia number decreased after DT injection. ***p < 0.001 (Student’s t test). d Representative foot-shock delivery and contextual fear freezing test methods. e–g Effect of microglial deletion on foot-shocks induced contextual fear freezing test. h Representative image of mouse track plots in open-field test. i–k Statistical analysis of mouse performance in open-field test. l Representative image of mouse track plots in EPM test. m–o Statistical analysis of mouse performance in EPM test; n = 10, data are expressed as means ± SEM, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 (ANOVA). (DT diphtheria toxin, TAM tamoxifen, NS no significant)