Fig. 2

Astroglial activation in wild type mice following intra-hippocampal delivery of αSyn fibrils. Neonatal mice were transduced with rAAV-EV or rAAV-IL-6 and injected with αSyn fibrils or PBS (vehicle) in the hippocampus at 2 months of age. 4 months following the intrahippocampal injections of αSyn fibrils, focal gliosis (GFAP) was observed along the needle tract in rAAV-EV mice (a). PBS (vehicle) serves as control (a). b–d. Expression of rAAV-IL-6 alone (IL-6 + PBS) resulted in a significant upregulation of GFAP (p = 0.0345), Iba-1 (p = 0.0328) and cd11b (p = 0.0003) immunoreactivity, compared to EV + PBS cohorts. In the EV cohort, αSyn injection leads to increased GFAP (p = 0.0146) and cd11b (p = 0.0002) but does not change Iba-1 levels (p = 0.2216). In the IL-6 cohort, injection of αSyn leads to a nonsignificant trend in increased GFAP (p = 0.2432) and cd11b (p = 0.0679) immunoreactivity and causes a non-significant lowering trend in Iba-1 levels (p = 0.1002). Whole brain images corresponding to these panels are shown in Additional file 2: Figure S2. n = 3–4/cohort. ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05, Student’s t test. Scale bar, 150 μm (a–c) and 40 μm (inset)