Fig. 5: AR blockade alters spontaneous regeneration in female mice.

a Scheme of the experimental paradigm. Visualization and quantification of OPC proliferation in (b, c), OPC differentiation in (d, e) and MBP immunostaining in (f, g) at 7 days after stereotaxic injection of LPC into the corpus callosum of ovariectomized female mice daily treated with the drug vehicle (Veh) or the AR antagonist flutamide (Flu). In (b), the white arrows indicate Ki67⁺ PDGFRα⁺ proliferating OPCs. h, i Immunostaining of microglial cells by using Iba1 and Arg-1 antibodies for the detection of the whole microglial population and the cell subset expressing the anti-inflammatory marker Arg-1. The dashed lines delineate the lesions. The boxed areas are magnified in the insets. (j–m) Visualization and quantification of MBP in (j, k) and Iba1/Arg-1 in (l, m) immunostaining at 10 dpl. Scale bars (µm): 50 in (b, j), 100 in (d, f, h, l). Data are presented as mean values ± SEM from n = 6 mice/group in (c, e, g, i) and n = 4 mice/group in (k, m) (3–4 slices/per animal). P values were calculated by using the unpaired two-tailed t-test (c, k, m) or two-tailed Mann-Whitney (e, g, i). Welch’s correction was used for (c left, i right). *p ≤ 0.05; **p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.001; ****p ≤ 0.0001 compared to the control (Veh); n.s., non-significant. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.