Fig. 7

Spatial transcriptomic analysis of the cell-type-specific gene expression in the irradiated brain reveals upregulation of bdnf and nptx1 in hippocampal excitatory neurons following riluzole treatment. A Spatial distribution plot of the hippocampus region in an individual brain section from the RT + Veh group, showing the localization of major cell types in MERFISH spatial transcriptomics profiling. B The UMAP visualization of 10 major cell types identified within the hippocampus, including excitatory neurons from the CA1, CA3, and dentate gyrus (DG) regions, inhibitory neurons, and non-neuronal (glial) cells including astrocytes (AST), microglia (Mic), oligodendrocyte granule cell and precursor cell (OGC, OPC), pericyte (Peri), endothelial cells (Endo). C Heatmap of marker gene expression for cell type identification. D Volcano plot illustrating differentially expressed genes between RT + RZ and RT + Veh groups in hippocampal excitatory neurons, highlighting the significant upregulation of bdnf and nptx1. E Violin plot showing the increased expression of bdnf in hippocampal excitatory neurons of the RT + RZ group compared to the RT + Veh group. The expression values were log-normalized. F, G Volcano plots of differentially expressed genes in hippocampal excitatory neurons between RT + Veh and Con + Veh, and Con + Rz and Con + Veh groups, serving as control comparisons to validate findings in (D). P values were derived from Wilcoxon Rank Sum test and adjusted by Benjamini–Hochberg methods. Scale bar, 0.5 mm, (A)