Fig. 3

Phagocytosis of cellular debris in reactive astrocytes is mediated by AXL. (A–D) Representative TEM images of the astrocytes in the ipsilateral cortex (A, blue), those in the 3 dpi group were characterized by prominent intermediate filament bundles (B, pink area) and abundant glycogen granules (B, asterisks), the cytoplasm often contained small pieces of cellular debris (arrow). (E) The ingested debris was completely included in the astrocytic cytoplasm (arrow), and even situated in a cytoplasmic vacuole within astrocytes. (F) Analysis of phagocytic astrocytes participating in debris clearance after TBI. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 by one-way ANOVA). (G) rmGas6 increased the phagocytic astrocytes at 3 dpi. *p < 0.05 by two-tailed Student’s t-test. (H) Dot plots of debris density (number/area [μm²]) in astrocytes in the sham and 3 or 7 dpi ipsilateral cortex. **p < 0.01 versus sham, ^#p < 0.05 versus 3 dpi by one-way ANOVA. (I) Astrocytic phagocytosis enhanced in rmGas6 treated ipsilateral cortex at 3 dpi. **p < 0.01 by two-tailed Student’s t-test