Fig. 8

The impact of aging and chronic neuroinflammation on the passive membrane properties of cholinergic neurons in the MS. A Representative confocal image depicting the MS in control mouse obtained under 2.5× magnification. Inset−10 × magnification of the MS. B Representative picture (× 40) depicting a cholinergic neuron with the recording electrode during whole-cell patch-clamp. C Sample traces of electrophysiological membrane properties in response to depolarizing and hyperpolarizing current injections. D–F Box plots depicting the intrinsic passive properties of the cholinergic neurons in the MS of control and GFAP-IL6 mice at young (3–4 months, light grey), adults (9–10 months, pink), and old (18–19 months, dark red) groups. The properties of resting membrane potential (D), input resistance (E), and time constant tau (F). Data are shown as box plot, the box upper and lower limits are the 25th and 75th quartiles, respectively. The whiskers depict the lowest and highest data points, the horizontal line through the box is the median and the + sign represents the mean, two-way ANOVA, with Tukey’s post hoc test. Post hoc effect of ‘genotype’ indicated by asterisks, (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001); post hoc effect of ‘age’ indicated by hash symbols (#p < 0.05, ##p < 0.01, ###p < 0.001, ####p < 0.0001)