Fig. 6

Postnatal EE rearing significantly reduced the extent of apoptosis and promoted a more mature laminar pattern. a, b Representative confocal images of S1 sections from P7 (a) and P9 (b) mice labeled with CC3 (green) and TOPRO (red). Treatment conditions as indicated. Cortical layers are indicated by Roman numerals, and borders between layers are marked using dotted lines. Scale bar is 200 μm. c, e EE rearing significantly reduced the number of CC3⁺ cells in S1 in both PBS and Keta + Dex group at P7 (C) and P9 (E). ^*** P < 0.001, using two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post hoc tests. d, f Distribution of CC3⁺ cells in different cortical layers at P7 (D) and P9 (F). ^* P < 0.05, ^** P < 0.01, ^*** P < 0.001, n.s., not significant, using two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post hoc tests. 4 mice were used per condition at P7, and 4–5 mice were used per condition at P9, 10 brain slices from each mouse were quantitated. Data are shown as the mean ± SEM