Fig. 6

aOECs counteract LPS-induced pro-inflammatory insult of microglia to spinal cord neurons. a Schematic diagram showing co-culture of neurons with microglia treated with aOECs and other stimuli, respectively. b The viability of neurons co-cultured with microglia undergoing the indicated treatments, respectively. c Representative photographs of neurons co-cultured with LPS-treated microglia in the presence or absence of aOECs plus/minus IL-4 NTAb, respectively. d Quantitative assessment of the number of β-tubulinIII positive cells. Note that aOECs significantly suppressed the decreased number of β-tubulinIII positive cells by pro-inflammatory insult of microglia. Reversely, Blockade of IL-4 signaling by IL-4 NTAb results in a decrease of β-tubulinIII positive cells. e Quantitative assessment of neurite length under indicated treatments. **p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001 vs their respective control, analysis of variance post hoc test. f Western blot analysis of C-caspase-3 expression in neurons under the indicated treatments. g Quantification of expression levels of C-caspase-3 normalized to β-tubulinIII. h The analysis of the apoptotic and viable neurons co-cultured with microglial cells undergoing the indicated treatments via flow cytometry. Notably, four quadrants represent the percentage of live, apoptotic and necrotic cells undergoing the indicated treatments, respectively. i Quantification of the relative number of apoptotic and necritic neurons co-cultured with microglia undergoing the indicated treatments. n = 3, *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 vs their respective controls. Scale bar = 100 μm