Fig. 2

Fractal analyses of TH-positive axons and measurements of co-labelled TH and VGLUT1 signals in the WT, BTBR and Fmr1-KO striatum. a Representative images of anti-TH staining in the dorsal striatum, taken by a confocal microscope with a 63x lens, forming a 30 × 30 μm field with 6 z-stacks of 0.35 μm steps. b Fractal dimensions Db of TH-positive axons in the Fmr1-KO striatum was higher, while the value of lacunarity was lower, than those in the WT striatum. c Representative diagrams of anti-TH (magenta), anti-VGLUT1 (green) and their merged image in the WT striatum. Merged dots (white), pointed by arrows, indicate boutons with adjacent TH and VGLUT1 labelling. d Boutons with the co-labelled signals were counted and their size was measured. The size of the boutons was similar between groups, whereas the number of the boutons was more in BTBR and Fmr1-KO mice than that in WT controls. n = 7–9 samples/group. *p < 0.05, compared to WT