Fig. 10: RNA-Seq analysis of the spinal cord derived from EAE mice therapeutically treated with DHT reveal major differences between female and male animals.

a Scheme of the experimental protocol. b, c PCA plot of two first components with their contribution to the variance depicturing clear differences between DHT-treated (DHT, n = 3) and control (CT, n = 4) samples in the first PCA component, which contributes for more than half of the variance of the experiment, in females in (b) and in males in (c) examined in two independent experiments. The size of the sample name and the circle indicate the relative contribution to the total variance. d, e Barplots and tables showing the contribution of oligodendroglial curated DEGs genes to promote (positive) or inhibit (negative) each process of oligodendrogenesis in females in d and in males in e. Note that DHT mainly promotes (re)myelination. f, g Dotplot representating the top 7 biological processes enriched in up-regulated genes in DHT-treated females in f and DHT-treated males in g compared to their respective controls, showing similar up-regulation of synaptic and neuronal associated processes in both sexes. h, i Dotplot representating the top 7 biological processes enriched in down-regulated genes in DHT-treated females in h and DHT-treated males in i. Note that while down-regulated genes are implicated in immune processes in females in h, they are implicated in catabolism in males in i. j–l Histograms visualizing the deregulation of genes characterizing homeostatic in j, Disease-Associated in k and White matter-Associated in l microglia by DHT in EAE females or males. Multiple testing correction aimed at controling the false discovery rate (FDR, p-adjust) was performed by using the Benjamini-Hochberg method f–i. Fisher test was used as well as multiple testing correction aimed at controling the false discovery rate (FDR, p-adjust) performed by using the Benjamini–Hochberg method j–l. *FDR < 0.05; **FDR < 0.01; ***FDR < 0.001.