Fig. 7

The effect of kainate treatment on the immunostaining of tight junction proteins claudin-5 and zonula occludens-1 in primary rat brain endothelial cells. a Representative confocal microscopy images of the immunostaining of junctional proteins claudin-5 and zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) in rat brain endothelial cells treated with 100 µM kainate (KA) alone or with simvastatin (KA + SIM, 1 µM), edaravone (KA + EDA, 1 µM) or dexamethasone (KA + DXM, 1 µM) for 24 h. Control groups (C) received only culture medium. Red: junctional protein staining, blue: cell nuclei. Arrowheads: fragmented junctional staining and gaps, asterisks: apoptotic body. n = 6–10. Scale bar: 10 µm. b The object number on the claudin-5 immunostained pictures was quantified by MATLAB software. c The object number on the ZO-1 immunostained pictures was quantified by MATLAB software. Mean ± SEM, n = 4–7, ANOVA, Bonferroni test, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 compared to the control group, ^##p < 0.01, ^###p < 0.001 compared to the kainate-treated group