Fig. 3

Brain atrophy and reactive astrocytosis in TDP-43 cKO mice. a Left, representative photo images of the brains of Ctrl and TDP-43 cKO mice at the ages of 3 months and 12 months. The total brain weights were also determined and compared in histograms on the right. N = 4–7 mice per group. Statistical analysis was done by unpaired t test with error bars reported as SEM, P < 0.05 was considered significant. b Representative histological images of the brain sections of 3- and 12-month-old TDP-43 cKO mice and their littermate Ctrls. More detailed characterizations are presented in Additional file 1: Figure S2. c Left panels, Nessie staining images of the forebrain and hippocampus sections from the Ctrl and TDP-43 cKO mice showing marked atrophy at corpus callosum (cc) and ventricle enlargement in the brain of 12-month-old TDP-43 cKO mice compared to Ctrls. The total cortex thickness and corpus callosum thickness were calculated by the length of cortex area and corpus callosum. N = 4 mice per group. Statistical analysis was done by unpaired t test with error bars reported as SEM, P < 0.05 was considered significant. d Immunohistochemistry staining with anti-GFAP revealing high numbers of GFAP-positive astrocytes in the retrosplenial cortex (RS) region of the cortex and stratum lacunosum-moleculare (SLM) region in the brain of TDP-43 cKO mice