Figure 4.

H&E staining and immunofluorescence analysis of the regenerated nerves at 12 weeks after surgery. (A) H&E staining of the transverse sections of regenerated nerves for each group of nerves. Scale bar: 200 μm. (B) Immunofluoresence staining results of NF200 (red, Alexa Fluor^®594 staining)/S100 (green, FITC staining) of the cross-section of the regenerated nerve (white arrows). DAPI staining showing a blue nucleus. Scale bar: 25 μm. (C and D) Quantitative results of the positive area percentage of NF200 and S100. The data are shown as the mean ± SD (n = 3). ^$P < 0.05, ^$$P < 0.01 vs Group SGC; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 vs group SGC+ES; ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01 vs group Auto; ^&&P < 0.01, ^&&&P< 0.001 vs group Sham (Brown–Forsythe (B) analysis of variance, followed by the Dunnett T3 posthoc test).

Abbreviations: H&E, hematoxylin and eosin; NF200, neurofilament 200; DAPI, 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole.