Fig. 4: Microglia depletion abolishes maternal SARS-CoV-2 vaccination-induced hippocampal neurogenesis.

a Schematic representation of the strategy to deplete microglia. b Representative images of microglia marker IBA1 in the hippocampus from control (left) and PLX5563 chow-treated (right) mice, Scale bar represents 100 μm. c Representative images of microglia marker IBA1(green) and astrocytes marker GFAP(red) in the hippocampus from control (left) and PLX5563 chow-treated (right) mice, Scale bar represents 20 μm. d Quantification of microglia marker IBA1 in the hippocampus from control and PLX5563 chow-treated mice. n = 5 pups/group. e Quantification of GFAP⁺ cells in the hippocampus from control and PLX5563 chow-treated mice. n = 4 pups/group. Representative images of the DG in each group showing BrdU (red) (f) and Ki67 (red) (g). Scale bar, 200 μm in f and g, 20 μm in higher power images (right). h, i Quantification of neuronal proliferation (BrdU⁺, Ki67⁺ in f, g) and differentiation (BrdU⁺ DCX⁺, Ki67⁺/DCX⁺ in f, g) in SCV pups and PBS pups after microglia deletion, n = 4 pups/group. Statistics calculated by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey HSD test (h, i) and Unpaired t test (d, e). ns: non-significant; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. Graphs indicate mean ± s.e.m.