Fig. 1

Inhibition of LPA₁ mitigates disease severity in EAN. a Active EAN was induced in Lewis rats, which were treated with the LPA₁ receptor antagonist AM095 once daily after developing first clinical symptoms at 10 dpi. While there was no significant impact of AM095 around the peak of disease, disease severity was significantly ameliorated over the course of the remission phase. A significant difference was observed from 20 dpi until the end of the experiment at 28 dpi. Each dot indicates mean clinical scores ± s.e.m. b Cumulative clinical scores of individual animals obtained from day 0 to the end of the experiment at 28 dpi. Animals were pooled from three independent experiments. N = 21 (Vehicle)/23 (AM095). c Representative images of semi-thin toluidine blue-stained sections of sciatic nerves at 28 dpi. d Axon diameter histogram indicates a significant increase in the number of large-caliber (≥ 8 µm) myelinated axons following AM095 treatment (N = 4). e G-ratios were plotted against axon diameters; overlapping results indicate comparability of both treatment groups with regard to axon diameter distributions and myelination. f In accordance with this finding, the assessment of g-ratios (the numerical ratio between axonal and myelinated fiber diameter) does not indicate any differences with regard to myelin thickness (N = 4). Data represent mean ± s.e.m. P ≤ 0.05*. Scale bar indicates 50 µm