Sprague Dawley rats were from Charles River. TNFα−/− (B6.129S-Tnftm1Gkl/J) transgenic mice and wild type C57BL/6J mice were from Jackson Laboratories. C1q(a)−/− (C57BL/6) were from previous studies in our lab34. Il-1α−/− mice were a gift from Dr Russell E. Vance, UC Berkeley. Tg(Aldh1l1-EGFP)OFC789Gsat/Mmucd mice were used to visualize astrocytes in in vivo phagocytic assays. Double (Il-1α−/− TNFα−/−) and triple (Il-1α−/− TNFα−/−C1q−/−) animals were developed in-house. All lines were maintained by breeding with C57BL/6 mice. Animals were randomly assigned numbers and evaluated thereafter blind (to both experimental condition and genotype).
