Fig. 3

Evaluation of the effects of nilvadipine or ARC031 on astrocytes activation. a–b An increase in the area of GFAP staining was observed in the r-mTBI-vehicle mice compared to sham-vehicle (\(p<0.001\)). This increase was suppressed in the r-mTBI-nilvadipine mice (\(p<0.05\)). c–d In the corpus callosum, r-mTBI-vehicle mice also exhibited elevated levels of GFAP compared to the sham-vehicle mice (\(p<0.001\)). Treatment with nilvadipine and ARC031 in the r-mTBI mice reduced astrogliosis (\(p<0.0001\), \(p<0.001\), respectively) compared to respective TBI-vehicle. Distribution of n “cortex/hippocampus” (M-male, F-female): sham-vehicle n = 5/8 (3M, 2F/4M, 4F), r-mTBI-vehicle n = 6/8 (3M, 3F/4M, 4F), sham-nilvadipine n = 6/8 (3M, 3F/4M, 4F), r-mTBI-nilvadipine n = 5/8 (2M, 3F/4M, 4F), sham-ACR031 n = 5/8 (2M, 3F/4M, 4F), r-mTBI-ARC031 n = 6/8 (3M, 3F/4M, 4F). Data are presented as mean \( \pm \) standard error of the mean; significance was calculated using one-way ANOVA. Scale bars equal 200 μm