Fig. 5

Effect of acetate on the morphology of astrocytes in the RVLM of SHRs. A, representative images displaying glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression in the RVLM were presented in the top panels, the middle panels feature micrographs of individual GFAP-positive astrocytes, while the traced outlines of these cells were displayed in the bottom panels. B-F, assessment of GFAP-positive astrocytes characteristics such as cell density, size of soma, count of branches, and both the longest and average lengths of the branches. G, a non-linear curve fitting illustrates the average frequency of branch intersections per 10 μm from the astrocytes cell soma, as calculated using Sholl analysis. H, the AUC ascertained from Sholl analysis for individual astrocyte. n = 5 for each group. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001, **** P < 0.0001