Fig. 1. Dietary inulin rescues SCI-induced enteric neuropathy and neurogenic bowel.

A Experimental overview: male wild-type mice receive laminectomy above the T9 cord (Sham) or laminectomy with 70kilodyne contusive spinal cord injury (SCI), with either a standard diet (Veh) or inulin (Inulin). B Hindlimb locomotor score, as assessed by Basso mouse scale (BMS), with dashed line at 9 representing no deficits, indicative or sham or uninjured locomotor function. C Percent changes in body weight relative to pre-injury weight. D Quantification of total intestinal transit time. E Representative traces of ex vivo colonic contractility. Average amplitude (F) and frequency (G) recorded from distal colon. Colonic protein levels measured via western blot for protein gene product 9.5 (PGP9.5) (H), neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) (I), and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) (J). IF quantification showing the number of HuC/D⁺ cells per ganglia (K), percentage of PGP9.5⁺ area (L), and nNOS⁺ cells per ganglia (M). N, O Representative images of myenteric plexus where cyan=HuC/D, red=PGP9.5, and green=nNOS. Asterisks in (C) indicate differences between sham and both SCI groups. Each circle represents individuals excluding (B, C), where each circle is the mean within that experimental group. IF data points are the averaged values of 2–7 images per mouse with N = 4–8 mice per group. N = 11–14 (B), N = 18–19 (C), N = 14–18 (D), N = 3–4 (F, G), N = 4–8 (H–J), N = 4–8 (K–M). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001. Data are shown as mean ± SEM and compared by repeated measures 2-way ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey’s test (for B, C) and by one-way ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey’s test (for D, F–M). Dashed line in (B) indicates maximum possible score for BMS of 9.