Figure 5
Effecs of corticosterone or functional electrical stimulation on FGF-2 immunoreactive data of rat facial nuclei. Figure shows area (A, C) and specific mean gray value (spMGV; B, D) of FGF-2 immunoreactive profiles in the sampled fields of the rat facial nuclei after systemic corticosterone or solvent injection (A, B) and functional electrical stimulation (C, D). Measurements were performed in the facial nuclei bilaterally in the corticosterone experiment and ipsilaterally to the levator labii superiors muscle electrode implantation in the functional electrical stimulation experiments. The control animals for functional electrical stimulation received electrode without electrical current. Morphometric/microdensitometric image analysis was used. The measurements represent the FGF-2 immunostaining area (within a 2.56 × 10-2 μm2 sampled field) and intensities (spMGV, arbitrary values) and reflect the number and amount per profile of the measured immunoreactivity, respectively (see text for details). Values are means ± S.E.M.; n = 4-5;*p < 0.05 according to the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test.