Fig. 5

Effects of intrathecal (i.t.) transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) on chronic constriction injury (CCI)-induced upregulation of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (phospho-ERK) in spinal neurons, microglia, and astrocytes at 14 d post-surgery. Merged images of double-immunofluorescence staining for phospho-ERK (red; a–i) with NeuN (neuronal-specific marker, green; a–c), OX-42 (microglial specific marker, green; d–f), and GFAP (astrocyte specific marker, green; g–i) in the lumbar spinal cord dorsal horn, obtained from the sham operated plus vehicle group (a, d, and g), CCI plus vehicle group (b, e, and h), and CCI plus TGF-β1 group (c, f, and i) at 3 h after i.t. injections. The results demonstrate that spinal phospho-ERK expression is primarily localized to microglia and astrocytes in the CCI plus vehicle group (yellow; white arrow), and is attenuated by i.t. TGF-β1. Scale bars: 50 μm for all images