3.4 Fingolimod treatment inhibited microglial activation in the dentate gyrus of PCP-treated rats
Accumulating evidence suggests that alterations in glial cells are closely related to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia (Agdm, Psaga et al., 2020). We hypothesised that the treatment effect of fingolimod may also be related to its immunomodulatory function. To test this hypothesis, we performed immunostaining of GFAP-labelled astrocytes and Iba-1-labelled microglia to evaluate glial activation in the hippocampus (Figure 5A). The results indicated that PCP (10 mg/kg, i.p.)-treated rats showed a significantly higher number of Iba-1-labelled microglia (Figure 5B), whereas fingolimod treatment (0.5 mg/kg, 1 mg/kg, i.p.) dose-dependently decreased the Iba-1 positive cells. However, no significant difference in GFAP expression was observed between the groups (Figure 5C). The above results indicate that fingolimod treatment inhibited microglial activation in the dentate gyrus of PCP-treated rats.