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Figure 6 | BMC Neuroscience

Figure 6

From: Lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation attenuates taste progenitor cell proliferation and shortens the life span of taste bud cells

Figure 6

LPS inhibits taste progenitor cell proliferation. A, Quantitative real-time RT-PCR analysis of Ki67 expression in nontaste (NT) and circumvallate and foliate-containing (CV+F) lingual epithelia 24 h after intraperitoneal injection of PBS or LPS. β-actin was used as the endogenous control for relative quantification, and the expression level of Ki67 in nontaste epithelium of PBS-treated mice was arbitrarily set to 1. LPS strongly inhibited the expression of Ki67 in the circumvallate and foliate epithelia. B, The number of Ki67-labeled cells per taste bud profile in the circumvallate epithelium. Only the Ki67-labeled cells that were adjacent to a taste bud were counted (a few examples are indicated by arrows in C). LPS treatment significantly reduced the number of Ki67-labeled cells in the circumvallate epithelium. Error bars indicate SEM. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.005. C, Confocal fluorescent images of circumvallate papillae stained with antibodies against KCNQ1 (red) and Ki67 (green). LPS treatment strongly reduced the staining intensity and the number of cells labeled with Ki67 antibody. D, Representative confocal images of Ki67 immunostaining of the nontaste lingual epithelium from PBS- or LPS-treated mice. Scale bars, 50 μm.

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