Effects of Neonatal Systemic Inflammation on Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability and Behaviour in Juvenile and Adult Rats
Figure 4
Claudin-5 immunoreactivity was detected on the endothelial cells of brain microvessels. In P9 (a) and adult (c) control brains, claudin-5 (brown reaction product) appears to be continuous along the length of the microvessels and to form a distinct pattern consistent with its location at cell-to-cell junctions (higher magnification in insert in (a)). In P9 (b) and adult (d) animals treated with LPS during the first 8 days of life a proportion of vessels in the brain (see also (e)) showed an altered distribution of claudin-5, with a fainter immunoreactivity and more diffuse staining pattern apparently in the cytoplasm (see insert for cellular distribution pattern in insert in (b)). Scale bar = 50 μm. Inserts show magnification of regions indicated by box in (a) and (b). (e) illustrates a relative proportion of cerebral blood vessels displaying claudin-5 immunoreactivity that was observed as “junctional” or cytoplasmic (see Methods). This showed that there is a shift towards cytoplasmic staining of claudin-5 in LPS-treated animals at all ages. for each group.
