Glucocorticoid receptor in astrocytes regulates midbrain dopamine neurodegeneration through connexin hemichannel activity

Tamoxifen-dependent Cre expression, recombination and determination of GR deletion in GRCx30CreERT2 mice. a Representative panels showing Cre immunohistochemistry in GRCx30CreERT2 mice injected with either vehicle or tamoxifen, in cortex (cx), striatum, septum, substantia nigra (SN) and hippocampus. The small squares in tamoxifen-positive images are magnified in upper panels to show Cre recombinase. Scale bar, 200？μm. b Representative images showing mTomato (red) staining after vehicle injection and appearance of mGFP expression in astrocytes of striatum, substantia nigra (SN) and hippocampus after tamoxifen injections in Cx30CreERT2:mT/mG mice. Scale bar, 100？μm. c Representative images showing double labeling of GR (red) and S100β (green) in cortex of GRloxp/loxP controls and GRCx30CreERT2 mice injected with tamoxifen. Scale bar, 5？μm. d, e Quantification of the percentage of S100β +？astrocytes co-labeled with GR and (d) and NeuN？+？neurons expressing GR (e) in cortex (Cx), striatum (ST) and substantia nigra (SN) of controls and GRCx30CreERT2 mutant mice injected with tamoxifen. *p？<？0.05; **p？<？0.01, mutant vs control. Error bars represent SEM. n？=？4–5/grou