Fig. 1.

Time course of the body weight in the sham control (sham), 6.25 mm contusion, and 12.5 mm contusion groups. The average weight in all groups was approximately 220 g before the contusion. The rats in both the 6.25 and 12.5 mm groups showed an immediate reduction in body weight after the spinal contusion. Two weeks after the SCI, the weight of the rats in the 12.5 mm group (n=19) was significantly lower than that of the rats in the 6.25 mm group (n=23) or sham-operated group (n=23). There was no significant difference in weight between the sham group and the 6.25 mm group for the entire 30 weeks. The sharps (#) indicate the values significantly different between the sham and the 12.5 mm groups, and the asterisks (*) indicate the values significantly different between the 6.25 mm group and 12.5 mm group. The time after the spinal cord contusion indicates weeks (W) following spinal contusion, except for "pre", which represents the preoperative test period.