Fig. 2

Simultaneous neuronal damage and reduced GPX4 expression in ECM mice. a and b Expression of synaptophysin (brown, a) and GPX4 (brown, b) in the cerebrum of control and ECM mice was detected by immunohistochemistry staining. The nucleus was stained with hematoxylin (blue). Black and yellow arrows indicate the high expression of synaptophysin and GPX4, respectively. c Expression of GPX4 (red) and NeuN (green) in the cerebrum of control and ECM mice was detected by immunofluorescence staining and quantified by fluorescent density analysis. The nucleus was stained with DAPI (blue). Relative fluorescent density is shown as the fold-change in relation to control levels. Data are reported as the mean ± standard deviation. Each point represents one region of the immunofluorescence staining image. **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001 vs. control. d Correlation between GPX4 and NeuN levels in the cerebrum of ECM mice was analyzed based on the fluorescent density of different regions in immunofluorescence-stained sections. White and yellow arrows indicate low and high levels of GPX4 and NeuN, respectively. Each point represents one staining region of ECM. ECM experimental cerebral malaria, GPX4 glutathione peroxidase 4, NeuN neuronal nuclei