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Fig. 11 | Acta Neuropathologica Communications

Fig. 11

From: Low-level blast exposure disrupts gliovascular and neurovascular connections and induces a chronic vascular pathology in rat brain

Fig. 11

Intraluminal astrocytic processes after blast exposure. Brain sections from rats sacrificed 6 weeks post-blast exposure were immunostained for GFAP (red) and α-SMA (green) with a DAPI nuclear counterstain (blue). a-d Representative sections of the hippocampal stratum lacunosum moleculare from a control (a) or a blast-exposed (b) rat. The arrow in panel (b) indicates the presence of intraluminal GFAP. The arrowhead in panel (b) indicates vacuolation in the smooth muscle (α-SMA staining). The smooth muscle layer appears thick, irregular and disorganized compared to that in the control in panel (a). c Panoramic 3D reconstruction of a large parenchymal vessel in a blast-exposed animal exhibiting intraluminal GFAP expression (arrow). d A 0.56-μm-thick confocal optical section from the cell in panel (c) showing directionally oriented GFAP-immunostained processes (asterisks) within the lumen. Scale bars: 50 μm for (a-c), 20 μm for (d)

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