Skip to main content
Fig. 1 | Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Fig. 1

From: Protective role of mirtazapine in adult female Mecp2+/− mice and patients with Rett syndrome

Fig. 1

General health evaluation of 6-month-old WT and HET Mecp2tm1.1Bird female mice before, during, and after treatment with MTZ (10 mg/kg). a Two protocols are shown. In the first, the main experimental timeline is detailed. Before the treatment, we evaluated general health through a specific phenotypic scoring (PS), besides dowel (DT) and horizontal bar (HB) tests. During the treatment phase (30 days), we performed, on alternate days, either i.p. injections of 10 mg/kg MTZ/vehicle (VEH) or behavioural tests: PS, DT, HB, and the nest building test (NB). Within the post-treatment phase (the week following the last injection), we performed DT, rod walk (RD), open-field (OF), and elevated plus maze (EPM) tests. At the end of this phase, mice brains were dissected and prepared for histological analysis. The second protocol was used only on untreated 6-month-old WT and HET mice. These mice were first tested at the dark-light exploration test (D/L). The day after, they were sedated, and their whiskers were clipped. They were then left in their home cages overnight, and the day after they were tested at the EPM. b Main evaluation of the phenotypic scoring along the experimental timeline. c Delta values for the main evaluation of the PS, calculated as the difference between the last evaluation (post-treatment) and the first one (pre-treatment). d Grid representing time course of PS for each single mouse. Within each experimental group, each row represents a different mouse. Data on graphs are expressed as median ± interquartile range, n = 10–11 mice per group. According to results of Shapiro-Wilk test, we performed Kruskal-Wallis test followed by corrected Dunn’s post hoc test. Multiple selected comparisons comprehended: WT-VEH vs WT-MTZ, WT-VEH vs HET-VEH, and HET-VEH vs HET-MTZ. ns: p > 0.05 (not shown); *p ≤ 0.05; **p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.001

Back to article page