Fig. 2

Astrogliosis induction after mild bTBI. a-i Mild blast forces caused increases in reactive astrocytes throughout the brain, including the brain regions: cerebral cortex (a-c), striatum (d-f) and hippocampal area CA1 (g-i). Representative images of brain regions stained for GFAP, a marker for reactive astrocytes, are shown for controls (a, d and g) and rats at 3 days post-bTBI (b, e and h). Quantifications of GFAP-positive cells expressed as normalized mean cell number per 0.01 mm² are shown for corresponding brain regions for controls and rats at 1, 3, 7 and 21 day(s) post-bTBI (c, f and i). GFAP-positive cells were counted in n = 19–77 squares of 100 × 100 μm on slides from 3 individual rats for each treatment group (6–32 squares/rat). All scale bars indicate 50 μm. All data are presented as mean ± SEM; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01; ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc