Acute Genetic Damage Induced by Ethanol and Corticosterone Seems to Modulate Hippocampal Astrocyte Signaling

Figure 4

NT appearance, diameters, and lengths in controls and EtOH- and/or CTS-exposed astrocytes. (a, b) Panoramic SEM images and respective skeletonized masks illustrate examples of astrocyte NTs from controls (CM and DMSO), EtOH, and/or CTS. The green asterisk indicates NTs that softly decrease ending in a cell-free space, and blue ones are NTs that cross over the cell surfaces connecting different astrocytes. (c, d) Box plots represent the distribution of NT length and diameter in each experimental group. (e) Distribution of the ratio between NT length and diameter in each condition, using medians and 95% confidence intervals. Differences between 150 astrocytes per variable and group were examined via the Kruskal-Wallis with Dunn test for multiple comparisons. ; ; ; ^ns (not significant). SEM: scanning electron microscopy; CM: culture media; DMSO: dimethyl sulfoxide; EtOH: ethanol; CTS: corticosterone; EtOH+CTS: simultaneous EtOH and CTS exposure; NTs: nanotubes.

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