Fig. 2

The effect of Gq- and Gi-DREADD activation in hippocampal astrocytes on plasticity of CA1 synapses. a Schematic overview of the electrode positions during CA1-Schaffer collateral stimulation (positioned 0.5 mm apart, created with BioRender.com). Immunohistochemistry showed CA1 astrocytes (GFAP, green) expressing DREADDs, which are fused to an mCherry protein (mCherry, red) and cell nuclei (DAPI, blue). Scale bar of 100 µm is marked in white. b Schematic timeline of the experimental procedure. Graph (c) shows the average fEPSP amplitude of the last stimulation in every phase of the experiment (baseline, CNO and wash-out). Comparisons between baseline and CNO or wash-out were made for every group using RM Two-Way ANOVA Bonferroni’s Post-hoc analysis, and significant results are illustrated on the graph with an asterisk, **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. d The graph shows the amplitude of the fEPSPs recorded from Schaffer Collateral (SC) stimulation in CA1 in time upon CNO (10 µM) application. Data are represented as the mean ± SEM, Gq-DREADD, n = 4; Gi-DREADD, n = 4; and control vector, n = 5