Fig. 5
Alleviation of Nociceptive Responses by Excitation of DAergic Neurons. A Experimental procedure schematic; Open field test (OFT) and elevated plus maze (EPM) experiment were performed at 15 days after incision. B Brain virus injection in the ventral tegmental area (VTA); C Fluorescence staining showing virus infection and co-labeled TH-positive neurons; scale bars = 100 μm. D Left plantar PWTs in each group (Control, n = 10; SI-mCherry, n = 12; SI-hM3Dq, n = 12, Two-way RM ANOVA, interaction: F(20;310) = 22.91, P < 0.001, Time: F(10;310) = 76.12, P < 0.001, Group: F(2;310) = 224.7, P < 0.001). E Right plantar PWTs in each group (Control, n = 10; SI-mCherry, n = 12; SI-hM3Dq, n = 12, Two-way RM ANOVA, interaction: F(20;310) = 0.9955, P > 0.05, Time: F(10;310) = 1.429, P > 0.05, Group: F(2;310) = 0.0614, P > 0.05). F Immunofluorescence staining of mCherry and c-Fos labelled positive cells in each group; scale bars = 100 μm. G Percentage of mCherry and c-Fos double-labelled cells among the virus-infected positive cells (SI-mCherry, n = 6; SI-hM3Dq, n = 6, unpaired t-test, P = 0.0203). Data are represented as mean ± SEM, compared with the SI-mCherry group: *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01