Fig. 2

CTSS is required for the sensory recovery of the lower lip post-IANX. A Volcanic plot showing the gene expression changes between sham and IANX rats at the site of IAN injury on day 14 post-surgery (n = 3). Blue and red dots indicate the downregulated and upregulated genes at the injured site, respectively. Vivid red dots indicate upregulated genes, especially in macrophages. The yellow dot indicates Ctss mRNA. B Secretory molecules from macrophages among the upregulated genes. C Images showing IBA1/CTSS double-positive cells at the injured site 14 day post-IANX. D Blot of CTSS at the injured site 14 day post-surgery. The column represents the average values of CTSS/β-actin. n = 4 in each, unpaired t test. ***P < 0.001. E Time course of HWT in IANX rats treated with saline, recombinant human CTSS (rhCTSS), or rhCTSS + Clo. n = 5 in each, Friedman test post hoc Dunn’s test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. day 2; GEE post hoc Bonferroni’s test. ^††P < 0.01, ^†††P < 0.001, #P < 0.05. F Time course of HWT in IANX rats treated with saline or Z-FL and sham rats. n = 5 in each, GEE post hoc Bonferroni’s test. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001. G Time course of HWT in IANX rats treated with negative control siRNA (siCont) or Ctss siRNA (siCtss). n = 5 in each, GEE post hoc Bonferroni’s test. **P < 0.01. Boxes show the 25th–75th percentiles with the median value as a line within each box, and whiskers indicate the 10th and 90th percentiles of the data in E, F, and G. All data points are shown as open circles