Confocal images and three-dimensional morphometric analysis of neurons double-labeled with BrdU and Golgi-Cox.

<p>(<b>A, B, C</b>) Confocal images of three dentate gyrus neurons double-labeled with BrdU (depicted with green dots) and Golgi-Cox (black staining). BrdU was administered for five consecutive days to 4 months old Wistar rats non-stressed and injected with saline for two weeks (Control) (<b>A</b>) or exposed to unpredictable chronic mild stress (uCMS) and injected with saline (<b>B</b>) or methyazoxymethanol (uCMS+MAM) (<b>C</b>) in the last two weeks of the stress protocol. Immunohistochemical analyses were performed 4 weeks after the injections. Nuclei (depicted with blue dots) were stained with Dapi. (<b>D, E, F</b>) Three-dimensional morphometric reconstruction analysis of the Golgi-impregnated dentate granule neurons double-labeled with BrdU shown in A (<b>D</b>) in B (<b>E</b>) and in C (<b>F</b>). (<b>G</b>) Graph showing the total dendritic length of newborn dentate granule neurons in the subgranular zone of different experimental groups (control and uCMS exposed rats untreated (−MAM) and treated with MAM (+MAM)). (<b>H</b>) Graph showing the percentage of different types of spines (thin, mushroom, wide and ramified) present in newborn dentate granule neurons in the subgranular zone of different experimental groups (control and uCMS exposed rats untreated (−MAM) and treated with MAM (+MAM)). Data represented as mean±se.m. Asterisk represents the comparison between control and all other experimental groups; *P<0.05 and **P<0.01. Scale bars: 50 µm.