Fig. 7

Decreased disease severity and motor deficits in nimodipine-treated EAE mice. A Disease severity of EAE mice treated with vehicle (gray) and nimodipine during the acute (D7–17) (green) or peak (D14–24) (red) phase of the disease was assessed daily. Clinical score was determined according to the criteria defined in the text. B Vehicle- and nimodipine-treated mice were evaluated using the rotarod performance test starting 1 week after EAE immunization. Speed of rotation gradually increased from 4 to 40 rpm in a 5 min interval. Latency to fall off the apparatus was measured daily and recorded in seconds. C Time to disease onset, time-to-peak disease, peak disease score, and cumulative disease score. Each dot denotes the mean of one subject. D Tabular presentation including disease incidence, mortality, average disease onset (EAE score ≥ 1), time-to-peak disease, peak disease score, and cumulative clinical EAE scores in vehicle- and nimodipine-treated mice. E Horizontal and vertical motor activity of vehicle- and nimodipine-treated mice were evaluated daily and recorded as the frequency of passes through the midline of an open cage and how often a subject reared on their hind limbs, respectively. F Body weight was assessed every other day and recorded in grams. Group comparisons in A, B, E and F were performed with the Mann–Whitney U test. One-way ANOVA followed by the Bonferroni’s test was used for comparisons between experimental groups in C and D. At least 12 mice per condition were tested and values are presented as mean ± SEM *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 versus vehicle