Skip to main content
. 2010 Dec 20;5(12):e15299. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015299

Figure 3. Antioxidant proteins and hindlimb locomotion increased by delayed combinatorial therapy of PACAP and hMSCs.

Figure 3

(A). The diagram shows the location of the administration of hMSCs and PACAP into 1–2 mm rostral and caudal to the lesion center at day 7 post severe SCI. (B) Immunostaining for human nucleus (HuNu) was carried out to identify transplanted hMSCs (green) at day 7 after hMSC transplantation. Many hMSCs were present in the injected zone proximal to the lesion center of the spinal cord. Scale bar in B, 50 µm. (C). The injured spinal cords were collected at day 14 after SCI. The lesion center with the length of 4–5 mm was dissected from the injured spinal cord tissues, subjected to protein extraction. The expression levels of selected antioxidant proteins as indicated above were examined by western blotting. The same blot was stripped and reprobed with β-actin antibodies as internal loading control. (D). At day 31 after SCI, rats with severe SCI were subjected onto an open-field to evaluate their hindlimb locomotion using Basso Beattie Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor rating analysis. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. *p<0.05 versus vehicle, PACPA, or hMSCs.