Fig. 4

BEMs gradually adapt to microglia-like morphology and persist in the brain. a Schematic of experimental design for long-term assessment of BEMs. b Representative images of microglia/BEMs counting, scale bar = 20 μm. c Sholl analysis results showing numbers of intersections at different distances to cell center, BEMs at 7, 14, 33, 90 and 180 days after WBRT were compared to naïve microglia age-matched to 90 days after WBRT. d Representative images showing differential Iba1 and GFP-expressing profiles of microglia (Iba1 + GFP−) and BEMs (Iba1 + GFP +) in a BEM-bearing brain at 33 days after WBRT. e Dot plot to show percentage of replacement of microglia by BEMs, each dot represent an individual mouse. n = 2–3. Statistical analyses were performed using unpaired t-test at each distance point (c) or time point (e). See Additional file 1: Fig. S7 for detailed comparisons between microglia and BEMs at each time point