Fig. 4

Expression of astrocytes in the spinal dorsal horn in WT and TLR4 KO mice. a Expression of astrocytes in the spinal dorsal horn was measured by IHC with the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) antibody. The upregulation of astrocytes was significantly higher in WT ipsilateral (A3) superficial laminae of the dorsal horn compared with the contralateral group (A1). No significant increase in IR cells was assessed in TLR4 KO mice. Scale bar = 50 μm in A1, A3, A5, and A7. Scale bar = 20 μm in A2, A4, A6, and A8. b The density of microglia in the superficial dorsal horn of mice was quantified with ImageJ. Two-way ANOVA; all the data are shown as mean ± SEM, where ***P < 0.001 denotes a significant difference compared with the control group