Astrocyte Hypertrophy Contributes to Aberrant Neurogenesis after Traumatic Brain Injury

Figure 2

DCX-labeled immature neurons in the dentate gyrus. In (a), a relatively low magnification confocal micrograph is shown to depict both the infrapyramidal and suprapyramidal blades, as well as the hilus from a sham mouse. In (b), a fluorescent micrograph from an FPI mouse illustrates that, despite no significant differences in the number of DCX-labeled cells, the overall appearance of the DCX-labeled cells in the dentate gyrus is altered, as can be seen by the hilar ectopic granule cell (arrow). In (c), quantitative analysis of DCX-labeled cells at the subgranular zone/granule cell layer border revealed no significant differences between sham mice and FPI mice at 30 days after injury. In (d), a higher magnification confocal micrograph is shown to illustrate the typical appearance of granule cells in the dentate gyrus in a sham mouse. In (e), the confocal micrograph at higher magnification from an FPI mouse shows a relatively robust number of DCX-labeled hilar ectopic granule cells (arrows) at 30 days after a TBI. Such cells have been implicated in proepileptogenic circuits. In (f), quantitative analysis of the number of DCX-labeled hilar ectopic cells revealed a significant increase () in FPI mice compared to sham mice. Scale bars in (a) & (b) = 30 µm and in (d) & (e) = 20 µm.

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