(a–f) Representative ECy stained cross sections from a lesion control and an implant plus NPCs cord rostral, at, and caudal to the injury epicenter. Scale bar = 400 μm. Graphs of the mean area of white matter spared 3 mm rostral from the epicenter (g), at the lesion epicenter (h), and 3 mm caudal from the epicenter (i) show that amount of white matter spared is similar for all groups. Error bars = ± SEM. (j) H&E of the epicenter of a lesion control cord. (k) H&E of the injury epicenter of an implant alone cord with an arrow noting the residual grey matter. (l) H&E of the injury epicenter of an implant plus NPCs:ECs cord. A small amount of grey matter can be seen lining the lesion (arrow). The lesioned side is on the left in all of the cross sections. (m) H&E of a longitudinal section of a lesion control cord. The left, hemisected side is at the top of the image. Scale bar = 1 mm. (n) H and E of a longitudinal section of an implant plus NPCs cord. The hydrogel can be seen in the hemisected region in this image. This section is a sister section of the longitudinal image in Fig. 7g. Scale bar = 1 mm.