Fig. 1From: Disruption of C/EBPβ-Clec7a axis exacerbates neuroinflammatory injury via NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated pyroptosis in experimental neuropathic painIncreased expression of Clec7a in spinal cord of the chronic constriction injury rats. (A) Mechanical withdrawal threshold in the ipsilateral paw of Sham and CCI rats (n = 12 rats/group). (B-C) Hierarchical clustering of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in spinal cord (SC) between CCI and Sham rats using microarray analyses (B; n = 3 rats/group) and RNA sequencing (C; n = 4 rats/group). (D-E) Expression levels of Clec7a mRNA and protein in SC tissues of Sham and CCI rats determined by qPCR and western blot, respectively (n = 3 rats/group with 2 technical replicates). (F) Clec7a immunofluorescence in the ipsilateral spinal dorsal horns (magnification 5 × /20 ×) on Day 10 (post-nerve injury). White arrows point to Clec7a-positive cells. The mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) was calculated by Image J software (n = 4–6 rats/group, 1 section/rat, 1–2 fields of view/section). Scale bar: 200 μm (up panel), 50 μm (down panel). (G) Representative images and quantitative analysis of co-localization of Iba-1, GFAP or NeuN with Clec7a in the ipsilateral spinal dorsal horns between Sham and CCI rats (n = 3 rats/group, 1 section/rat, 3 fields of view/section). White arrows point to Clec7a-positive cells. Scale bar: 20 μm. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. Unpaired Student’s t test was used to analyze data between the two groups. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 compared with Sham group.Back to article page