Fig. 2
Establishment of the experimental rat model of HACE. (A) MWM, the platform quadrant dwell time and platform crossing number of rats in each group; (B) BWC was significantly increased in all hypoxia groups compared to the NC group, among which the mean BWC was highest in the HH 2d group; (C) The histopathological features in the cortex and hippocampus regions were examined by HE staining. The cortex and hippocampus regions of the NC group showed normal histological features (a and f). Only dilated perivascular spaces and a little pyknotic neurons were observed in the HH 6h group (b and g). However, pyramidal cells in the cortex and hippocampus regions of rats in the HH 1d group presented massive derangement, karyopyknosis, hyperchromatic nuclei and irregular shape (c and h). The HH 2d group (d and i) and HH 5d group (e and j) showed the most severe lesions than the other hypoxia groups with the feature of cell swelling, vacuolar degeneration, dilated perivascular spaces and reduced number of neurons in the cortex and hippocampus regions. (D) Inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines in serum; (E) The expression of AQP4 and VEGF proteins. The expression of target proteins was normalized to that of the reference protein β-actin; (F) The relative level of VEGF and AQP4 mRNA expression. The expression of AQP4 and VEGF mRNA was normalized to that of actin as the internal reference, calculated using the 2-ΔΔCt; Asterisks are used to indicate statistical significance as follows: *, **, ***, and **** indicate p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.001, and p < 0.0001, respectively.
