Fig. 6
Sarm1 knockout and haploinsufficiency suppress pTau expression after rTBI. (A) Representative micrographs showing the distribution of pTau versus pTDP-43 positive cells in the cerebral cortex at 1 month after rTBI. (B) Compared to wild type Sarm1+/+ mice, Sarm1−/− and Sarm1+/− mice had significantly fewer pTau positive cells in the injured cerebral cortex (long arrows indicate pTau stained cells, double arrowhead indicate pTDP-43 stained cells, and short arrow indicates pTDP-43/pTau double stained cells). (C) Shift towards fewer pTDP-43, pTau, and pTDP-43/pTau-double stained in Sarm1−/− and Sarm1+/− mice. While the proportion of pTDP-43 positive cells was similar for Sarm1−/− (17.0%) and Sarm1+/− (16.8%) groups, there were significantly fewer pTau and pTDP-43/pTau-double stained cells in Sarm1−/− (2.3%) versus Sarm1+/− (2.9%) (p < 0.05, χ2-test with post-hoc Bonferroni adjustment). Data are mean ± SEM; n = 9 per group. Scale bars = 50 μm