The Conflicting Role of Caffeine Supplementation on Hyperoxia-Induced Injury on the Cerebellar Granular Cell Neurogenesis of Newborn Rats

Figure 2

Representative cerebellar paraffin sections colabeled with calbindin and DAPI of rat pups exposed to normoxia (NO) or hyperoxia (HY) compared to rat pups treated with caffeine (NOC, HYC). Examinations were performed at postnatal day 3 (P3 (a)) and P5 (c) or after recovery after 3-day exposure at P15 (b) or after 5-day exposure at P15 (d). Immunofluorescent images indicated calbindin (green) and nuclei (blue, DAPI). Three- (P3) and five-day (P5) lasting hyperoxia affects the density and length of dendrites of Purkinje cells in the newborn rat cerebellum and persists mainly after 5 day hyperoxia exposure until P15 (P5_P15). Caffeine was found to partly counteract these changes. EGL: external granular layer; ML: molecular layer; IGL: internal granular layer. Scale bar P3/P5 with 25 μm and P3_P15/P5_P15 with 50 μm.