Impact of Hepatoma-Derived Growth Factor Blockade on Resiniferatoxin-Induced Neuropathy

Figure 4

Effect of rHDGF antibody on neuron cells in the L3/L5 spinal cord dorsal horn of RTX-treated rats. After the rats were divided into three groups, neuropathy was induced by intraperitoneally administration of a single dose of RTX (50 μg/kg). In the RTX+rHDGF antibody group, 100 μg/kg rHDGF antibody was administered and applied 24 hours before RTX injection. The control group received no rHDGF antibody pretreatment and no RTX injection. At 3 or 7 days after RTX injection and/or pretreated with rHDGF antibody, L3-L5 spinal cord dorsal horn were harvested, and the expression of apoptotic neurons were evaluated through immunofluorescence staining by TUNEL assay (green), neuron cell marker (Neu-N) (Red), and DAPI (blue) (400x magnification). (a) Representative immunofluorescence staining image shown are from 3 to 5 sections stained at least from 6 rats for each group. Apoptotic neurons visualized (indicated by arrows) in the dorsal horn of the L3/L5 spinal cord are also shown. (b) The numbers of apoptotic neurons per animal were shown. . Data are expressed as the ( per group).

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