Fig. 4

MTZ intervention. (A) MWM, the platform quadrant dwell time and platform crossing number of rats in each group; (B) Compared to the HH + NS group, both HH + MTZ1 and HH + MTZ2 showed a significant improvement in BWC, with the HH + MTZ2 group closer to the NC group, but there was statistical significance between the two groups; (C) In HE staining, cell swelling, vacuolar degeneration, and dilated perivascular spaces in the cortex and hippocampus regions of the HH + MTZ1 group (c and g) were significantly relieved, compare with the HH group (b and f). Only dilated perivascular spaces and a little pyknotic neurons were observed in the HH + MTZ2 group (d and h), which are very close to the normal histological features (a and e); (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.