Fig. 6

ENT1^−/− mice show neuroplastic changes in the cervical enlargement of the spinal cord at 6.5 months of age. A–C Representative images of immunofluorescent detection and quantification within the dorsal horn of the cervical spinal cord in wild-type and ENT1^−/− mice. No differences were detected between left and right dorsal horns using Mann–Whitney’s test, so data were pooled (n = three to four female, three male per genotype). To account for anatomical and size differences in the region of interest, the upper, mid, and lower regions of the cervical enlargement were analyzed independently. A region of interest was defined around each dorsal horn to analyze laminae one to four, based on greyscale density using brightfield images. The area was standardized for each region of the cervical enlargement and the raw integrated density of immunoreactivity was averaged from up to three randomly selected sections from each region per animal. Immunoreactivity was measured for A calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), B glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and C ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1 (IBA1). Data are plotted as mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05 by Mann–Whitney test for genotype differences and Kruskal–Wallis with Dunn’s multiple comparisons test for differences between cervical regions