Extended Data Fig. 7: Effects of Tak1 activation in the microglia of brainstem on BA morphology and function.

a, H&E and Masson’s trichrome stainings of basilar artery. Ctrl-Lenti, CD11b-Ctrl-Lenti. Tak1^CA-Lenti, CD11b-Tak1^CA-Lenti. Scale bars, 20 µm. For H&E staining, n = 5 mice per group. For Masson’s trichrome staining, n = 4 (Ctrl-Lenti) or 3 (Tak1^CA-Lenti) mice. b, Thickness of basilar arterial wall. Ctrl-L, CD11b-Ctrl-Lenti. Tak1^CA-L, CD11b-Tak1^CA-Lenti. *P = 0.024, t(8) = 2.77. n = 5 mice per group. c, Percentage of collagen area over vessel wall area. *P = 0.01, t(5) = 4.0. n = 4 (Ctrl-L) or 3 (Tak1^CA-L) mice. d, Immunofluorescent staining for p-eNOS (green) in the basilar artery. Scale bars, 50 µm. n = 4 mice per group. e, Relative p-eNOS fluorescence level in the basilar artery. au, arbitrary unit. *P = 0.002, t(6) = 5.14. n = 4 mice per group. f, C57 BL/6 mice (12 weeks old) were injected the indicated lentiviruses into brainstem. Four weeks later, basilar arteries were collected and lysed. The lysates were immunoblotted with p-eNOS and eNOS antibodies. Gapdh was used as a loading control. To prepare each sample, tissues from 8 mice were combined. g, Impairment of Ach-evoked relaxation of basilar artery of CD11b-Tak1^CA-Lenti virus-injected mice. Ctrl-Lenti, CD11b-Ctrl-Lenti. F(1, 100) = 51.03 for column factor. F(4, 100) = 88.33 for row factor. *P = 0.002, logM (Ach) = -6; P = 0.001, logM (Ach) = -5; or P = 0.0008, logM (Ach) = -4. n = 11 mice per group. Uncropped western blots can be found in Source Data Extended Data Fig. 7. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. Two-tailed Student’s t-test (b, c, e) and two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s post hoc test (g) were used for statistical analysis.

Source data