Fig. 7

Egr-1 knockout in mice suppresses meningitic E. coli-induced BBB disruption. A ELISA analysis of VEGFA, PDGFB, and ANGPTL4 in brain lysates from challenged WT and Egr-1^−/− mice. Data were collected and presented as mean ± SD. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001. B Real-time PCR analysis of ZO-1, Occludin, and Claudin-5 transcription in brains from challenged WT and Egr-1^−/− mice. The transcription of β-actin was used as the internal reference. Data were presented as the mean ± SD from three independent experiments. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001. C Western blot analysis of ZO-1, Occludin, and Claudin-5 expression in brain lysates from challenged WT and Egr-1^−/− mice. β-actin was used as the loading control, and densitometry was performed to analyze the differences. D Immunofluorescence analysis of vascular endothelium integrity in infected WT and Egr-1^−/− mice. ZO-1, Occludin, and Claudin-5 were stained in red. CD31 was specifically applied for labeling the microvessels in green. The cell nucleus was stained in blue with DAPI. Scale bar indicates 50 μm. E Evans blue assay was used to evaluate BBB permeability in WT and Egr-1^−/− mice with or without meningitic E. coli infection (n = 5)