Fig. 5

Reduction of CREB activity in normal-appearing white matter neurons. a Representative images of multiple sclerosis (MS) and non-neurological control (Ctr) brain tissue sections co-targeted with phosphorylated CREB (P-CREB, green, left panel) and neuronal marker NeuN (red, middle panel); merged with DAPI (blue, right panel) assessed by immunofluorescence (IF) (magnification 630x, scale bar 15 μm). b Quantification of IF images from MS cases (n = 7) and Ctr (n = 8). The amount of NeuN⁺/CREB (phospho S133)⁺-neurons is presented as a percentage of the total amount of all detectable NeuN⁺ cells. In contrast to NAWM, CREB activation status in the NAGM neurons was less affected and comparable between the groups. *p < 0.05, *p < 0.01 using Kruskal-Wallis test and Dunn’s test for multiple comparisons. NAWM, normal-appearing white matter, NAGM, normal-appearing grey matter, WM, White matter, GM, Grey Matter