Unilateral dermorphin-SAP intrastriatal injections produced striosomes ablation.

(A and D) Representative photomicrographs showing the effect of unilateral intrastriatal injections of DS (A) and SAP (D) on MOR IR. Vehicle injected hemisphere was used as control. (B and E) Graphs represent optical density values of MOR IR in the striosomes after DS (#1 to #7; B) and SAP (C1 to C3; E) injection in each rat. Data represent mean ± SEM and are expressed as percentage of vehicle-injected hemisphere. (C and F) Analysis of the number of striosomes in categories ranked by percentages of MOR IR in the rats injected with DS (C) or SAP (F). Data represent mean ± SEM. Statistical analyses of the data were performed with Mann Whitney U test, ***P < 0.001. Scale bars are 1 mm. Abbreviations: Acb: nucleus accumbens; cc: corpus callosum; CPu: caudate putamen; DS: dermorphin-SAP; MOR: μ opioid receptor; SAP: saporin.