Fig. 11

Overexpression of lipocalin 2 in the brain induces astrocyte activation in the hippocampus. After a single intracerebroventricular injection of recombinant lipocalin 2 protein (7 μL, 1 μg/mL) or vehicle in the brain of the mice for 7 days, the brain coronal slices were fixed for immunohistochemistry with anti-GFAP antibody. Representative images were taken from the dorsal (A) and ventral (B) hippocampal CA3 areas, and the GFAP immunoreactivity was quantified as the percentage of GFAP-positive cells in the dorsal (C) and ventral (D) hippocampi of the vehicle and lipocalin 2 groups. Quantitative results are presented as mean  ±  SEM (n =  3 per group). The Student’s t-test was used to examine the significance of the mean. * p <  0.05 vs. the vehicle group. ** p  <  0.01 vs. the vehicle group. GFAP: glial fibrillary acidic protein, LCN2: lipocalin 2, SEM: standard error of mean