Figure 3

Gliosis and dendritic changes around blast-induced tear indicate chronicity of the lesion. Shown is a confocal image at the cortical surface adjacent to the tear (asterisk) illustrated in Figure  2 from a rat sacrificed four months after receiving a 3 × 74.5 kPa blast-exposure. The section was stained with antibodies against β-III tubulin (Tuj, A, green), GFAP (B, red), and with a DAPI nuclear stain (C, blue). A merged image is shown in panel (D). Note the attenuation of the Tuj immunostaining of the dendrites in neurons in cortical layers II and III adjacent to the lesion (arrows in A) and the increased GFAP immunostaining adjacent to the lesion (B, arrow). Scale bar: 50 μm.