Fig. 5

RIPK1 and RIPK3 deficiency reduces microglia activation. a. Exemplary stainings for the microglia marker iba1 in WT (upper inserts) and neuronal RIPK1 deficient mice (lower inserts) 100 µm (left inserts) and 300 µm (right inserts) from the rim of the lesion. b-i. Coverage and fractal analysis of microglia. In areas closer to the lesion site (100 µm, left side of each panel), knockout animals of both lines showed a decrease in microglia coverage (b. RIP 1, d. RIPK3) compared to their wild type littermates. Fractal analysis revealed that microglia of knockout animals in proximity to the lesion have less processes (c. RIP 1, e. RIPK3) are less circular (f. RIP 1, h. RIPK3), and overall smaller (g. RIP 1, i. RIPK3). In the more distal region, cells resembled those in sham operated animals, with no differences between genotypes. j-m. Sholl analysis also shows increased ramification, i. e. more active cells, close to the lesion (j. RIP 1, l. RIPK3), but not further away from the lesion site (k. RIP 1, m. RIPK3). Data are presented as mean ± SD; n = 9–10 for RIPK1, n = 8–9 for RIPK3. Student t-test for normalized and Man-Whitney-Rank-Sum-test for non-normalized data was used. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.005, ***p < 0.001. n.s. indicates no significant statistical difference between groups