Fig. 6: Return to GMF rescued the defective adult hippocampal neurogenesis of HMF-exposed mice.

a Experiments timeline for cell proliferation analysis in HMF-exposed mice, followed by 2-, 4-, 6-weeks return to GMF. b, c Quantification of numbers of BrdU⁺Sox2⁺GFAP⁺ cells (b) and BrdU⁺Sox2⁺GFAP⁻ cells (c) in the DG of HMF-exposed mice with or without return to GMF. GMF, n = 4 mice, HMF, n = 4 mice, HMF + GMF, n = 4 mice. P values were determined using the two-tailed unpaired t test. d Experiments timeline for cell differentiation analysis in HMF-exposed mice, followed by 4-week return to GMF. e–g Quantification of numbers of BrdU⁺ cells (e), BrdU⁺NeuN⁺ cells (f), and BrdU⁺S100β⁺ (g) in the DG of HMF-exposed mice with or without return to GMF. GMF, n = 4 mice, HMF, n = 4 mice, HMF + GMF, n = 4 mice. P values were determined using the two-tailed unpaired t test. h Timeline of experiments for the in vivo labeling and analyses of newborn neurons in the DG of HMF-exposed mice, followed by return to GMF. i, j Quantification of the dendritic length (i) and dendritic complexity (j, HMF versus HMF + GMF, UNIANOVA, F(1, 120) = 4.972, P = 0.028) of RFP⁺ newborn neurons in the DG of HMF-exposed mice with or without return to GMF 4-weeks after retroviruses injection. GMF, n = 83 neurons from four mice, HMF, n = 50 neurons from four mice, HMF + GMF, n = 72 neurons from four mice. Data were analyzed by UNIANOVA analysis, and the two-tailed unpaired t test for two-group comparisons. k, l Quantification of the dendritic length (k) and dendritic complexity (l, HMF versus HMF + GMF, UNIANOVA, F(1, 264) = 10.944, P = 0.001) of RFP⁺ newborn neurons in the DG of HMF-exposed mice with or without return to GMF 8-weeks after retroviruses injection. GMF, n = 143 neurons from four mice, HMF, n = 186 neurons from four mice, HMF + GMF from four mice, n = 80 neurons from four mice. Data were analyzed by UNIANOVA analysis, and the two-tailed unpaired t test for two-group comparisons. The data in (i, k) were presented in the whisker plot with defined elements, median (centerline), upper and lower quartiles (bounds of box), and highest and lowest values (whiskers). Other data are presented as mean ± SEM. Tukey’s multiple comparisons test was performed to analyze the mean of each group with the mean of every other group.