Fig. 4

Accelerated vascular disruption in α5-EC-KO mice during EAE progression. a. Frozen sections of lumbar spinal cord taken from α5-EC-KO and WT littermate control mice at the pre-symptomatic and peak symptomatic phases of EAE were stained using antibodies specific for CD31 (AlexaFluor-488) and fibrinogen (Fbg) (Cy-3). Scale bar = 100 μm. b. High-power images of CD31+ blood vessels showing extravascular fibrinogen leak during the pre-symptomatic phase of disease. c. Quantification of fibrinogen leakage in α5-EC-KO vs. WT littermate mice. Results are expressed as the mean ± SEM (n = 4 mice/group). Note that at the pre-symptomatic phase of disease, while WT littermate control mice showed negligible vascular leak, α5-EC-KO mice showed obvious leakage. Interestingly though, by the peak symptomatic phase of disease, vascular leak between the two strains of mice was largely equivalent. * p < 0.05 vs. WT