Fig. 2

Immunofluorescent c-Fos staining in the VTA of DAT-cre rats infected with hM3D(Gq) encoding rAAV after the activation with CNO (chemogenetic activation) or saline. A–C Representative coronal cerebral sections show the locations of virus-labeled neurons (red, A), the immunofluorescent neurons with c-Fos staining (green, B) and the co-localization neurons (yellow, C) in the VTA after the chemogenetics activation of VTA dopaminergic neurons; Panels A1, B1 and C1 are higher-magnification images of the boxed regions in panels of A–C, respectively; D–F the locations of virus-labeled neurons (red, D); immunofluorescent c-Fos staining (green, E); and the merged results of the co-localization labeling (yellow, F). The results indicated that the saline injection did not cause obvious c-Fos signal in the region of VTA of DAT-cre transgenic rats; Panels D1, E1 and F1 are higher-magnification images of boxed regions in the panels of D–F, respectively. The nuclei were stained blue by DAPI. The scale bar: 200 μm