Intraspinal Grafting of Serotonergic Neurons Modifies Expression of Genes Important for Functional Recovery in Paraplegic Rats

<div>Immunofluorescent detection of inflammatory response in control SCI<sub>4m</sub> (a) and transplanted SCI<sub>TR</sub> (b) rats at 4 months after total spinal transection and 3 months after transplantation (sham grafting in SCI<sub>4m</sub>). The first panel shows general view of spinal cord cross section labeled with isolectin B4 (IB4) to visualize activated microglia in low power; the next two panels show boxed area labeled with IB4 (green; left and middle panel) for microglia and GFAP (green; right panel) for astrocytes, reimaged using confocal microscope. Note grafted tissue at Th13/L1 and serotonin-positive fibers (5-HT, red) located closely to ventral horn motoneurons (NeuN; purple) at L4/L5. Representative images: scale bar: 500 <i>μ</i>m and 50 <i>μ</i>m in low- and high-power images, respectively.</div>

Neural Plasticity

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Figure 3

Figure 3: Intraspinal Grafting of Serotonergic Neurons Modifies Expression of Genes Important for Functional Recovery in Paraplegic Rats 