Figure 3. Tissue levels of uPA enzymatic activity are significantly increased in response to spinal cord ischaemia.

At 3 and 6 h post-ET-1 microinjection, 5 mm of experimental spinal cords (centered on the microinjection sites) were rapidly isolated, ventral spinal tissue was dissected, and 10 μg of total protein was analysed by uPA zymography (A). Densitometric analysis of zymographic results revealed that by 3 h, levels of uPA enzymatic activity were significantly increased compared with sham-injected tissue (B). Levels of uPA activity are further increased by 6 h post-ischaemia, and were significantly higher than both sham and 3 h levels (B). Quantitative data are the mean uPA activity±S.D. (*P≤0.05, **P≤0.01 and ***P≤0.001; F = 48.79, df = 9).