Fig. 2.

Time course of the BBB score following the spinal cord injury in three groups of rats. The inset shows the BBB score for the initial 7 days after spinal contusion for clarification. Before the SCI, the BBB score of all groups was 21. Every rat showed normal gaiting. On the first day after the SCI, the BBB scores decreased markedly to 2.4 ± 0.4 in the 6.25 mm groups and 1.5 ± 0.4 in the 12.5 mm group. By 3 weeks after the SCI, BBB scores gradually increased in both groups and were maintained for the remaining 27 weeks. Since 2 weeks after the SCI, the difference in the BBB score between the 6.25 mm group and the 12.5 mm group had obviously been sustained until 30 weeks after the SCI (p<0.05). The final BBB score of the 6.25 mm group was 18.1 ± 0.6 and that of the 12.5 mm group was 13.7 ± 0.8. The asterisks (*) of each group indicate the values that are significantly different from the values in the sham group and sharps (#) indicate the values significantly different between the 6.25 mm group and the 12.5 mm group. The time after the spinal cord contusion indicates days (D) and weeks (W) following the spinal contusion, except for "pre", which represents the preoperative test period.