Fig. 9: DHT controls differently the local inflammatory cells in EAE female and male mice.

a Scheme of the experimental protocol. Immunostaining of microglial and astroglial cells in the spinal cord from vehicle or DHT-treated female in (b–h) or male in (i–o) mice. b, c Visualization and quantification of microglia in the whole white matter of vehicle-treated females indicate numerous spots of Arg-1⁺ cells extending deeply into the white matter (white arrows in b) strongly reduced under DHT treatment. d, e Visualization and quantification of Iba1 and Arg-1 staining at the level of an individual lesion indicating that Iba1 staining is still decreased whereas Arg-1⁺ area is significantly higher under DHT treatment. f, g GFAP⁺ astrogliosis is shown in whole spinal cord slices co-labeled by MBP antibody aimed at visualizing myelin. Numerous spots of demyelinated tissue are shown (white arrows) in the vehicle- compared to the DHT condition. Magnifications of the boxed areas show that DHT treatment is accompanied by the decrease of GFAP staining in the gray matter (GM) and conversely its increase in the white matter (WM). h Quantification of MBP⁺ area in the white matter. i–l Visualization and quantification of Iba1 and Arg-1 staining in the spinal cord from male in the whole white matter in (i, j) and at the level of individual lesions in k, l. m–o Visualization of GFAP and MBP staining in m. Quantification of GFAP⁺ fluorescence in the white (WM) and gray (GM) matter in n and of MBP in the white matter in o. The boxed areas in b, i are magnified in d, k. Data are presented as mean values ± SEM from n = 8 mice/group examined in a single experiment (3–4 slices/per animal). P values (c, e, g, h, j, l, n, o) were calculated by using the unpaired two-tailed t-test or Mann-Whitney test. Welch’s correction was used for (e left, j, h). **p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.001; ****p ≤ 0.0001; n.s, non-significant. Scale bars (µm): 200 in (b, f top, i), 50 in m, 25 (d, f bottom, k). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.