Fig. 3

Effect of pharmacogenetic activation of D1-receptor-expressing neurons in the medial shell of the nucleus accumbens on the systemic immune response. a Schematic diagram of the experimental design. The D1-WT or D1-Cre mice were microinjected with hM3Dq into the medial shell of the nucleus accumbens. Two weeks after the microinjection, mice were transplanted by LLC cells and administered repeatedly by CNO (3 mg/kg, i.p., t.i.d.). Fifteen days after LLC transplantation and CNO administration, the spleen was harvested from these mice and homogenized to make a single-cell suspension followed by flow cytometry to analyze the immune cells in the spleen. b–e Representative flow cytometric plots (left panel) and quantitative evaluation of the number (right panel) of CD4⁺ T and CD8⁺ T cells (b), NK and NKT cells (c), neutrophil (d) and macrophages (e) derived from the spleen of D1-WT/hM3Dq and D1-Cre/hM3Dq mice bearing LLC after repeated administration of CNO. Each data point represents the mean ± S.E.M. of 6 samples (Mann–Whitney test, ^*p < 0.05 vs D1-WT/hM3Dq)