Fig. 6

Macrophage fuse to form multinucleated giant cells at day-18. Macrophages can fuse to form multinucleated giant cells (a, b). MGCs were observed at higher numbers at day-18, in both the CXB-NE and DF-NE conditions (c). The day-18 CXB-NE group had significantly more MGCs compared to the day-18 DF-NE (p < .0001) and the day-12 CXB-NE (p < .0001) groups (c). White arrows point to CD68 staining showing macrophages fused into MGCs. Yellow arrows indicate a nanomedicine signal inside MGCs. Seen here in this animation are M2 macrophages fused to form a multinucleated giant cell [59]: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.8142950. DAPI stained nuclei are blue, CD68 stained MGCs composed of macrophages are green, and the NIRF from nanomedicine is purple. Panel a is a merge of DAPI, CD68 and nanomedicine channels; and panel b is a merge that additionally includes a DIC channel in order to visualize nerve tissue morphology. All scale bars are 20 μm. Data are represented as mean ± SEM (n = 3 animals, 48–59 ROI; ****p < .0001, one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test)