Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 2 pp 1965—1986

Figure 5. Age-dependent postoperative changes in brain levels of IL-6, mitochondria function, and synapse levels. (A). Effects of the anesthesia/surgery on the brain IL-6 levels between the 9 and 18 months old mice. The anesthesia/surgery reduces the mitochondrial function in the brain tissues of the 9 (B) or 18 (C) month old mice as compared to the control condition. The 18 months old mice have lower baseline (D) or greater reduction (E) in mitochondrial function than 9 months old mice have. (F) The effects of the anesthesia/surgery on PSD-95 levels between the brain tissues of the 9 months old mice and the brain tissues of the 18 months old mice. (G) The quantification of the Western blot showing that the anesthesia/surgery decreases hippocampus PSD-95 levels as compared to the control condition in the 18 months old mice but not in the 9 months old mice. (H) The effects of the anesthesia/surgery on synaptophysin levels between the brain tissues of the 9 months old mice and the brain tissues of the 18 months old mice. (I). The quantification of the Western blot showing that the anesthesia/surgery decreases the synaptophysin levels in the hippocampus of the 18 months old mice but not the 9 months old mice. PSD: postsynaptic density; IL-6: interleukin-6. N = 6 in each group. Two-way ANOVA and post-hoc Bonferroni comparison was used to analyze the data in the (A, G and I). * = P < 0.05.