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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Sep 14.
Published in final edited form as: Cell. 2012 Sep 14;150(6):1264–1273. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.08.020

Figure 5. Functional and Electrophysiological Improvement after T3 Complete Transection.

Figure 5

(A) Hindlimb locomotion: BBB scores after T3 complete transection show significant improvement in subjects that received neural stem cell grafts (NSC, n=6) compared to lesioned controls (n=6). Re-transection (arrow, Re-T) at rostral interface of graft with host abolishes functional improvements when assessed one week later (**p<0.01, ***p<0.001). Data are represented as mean ± SEM. (B) Electrophysiological transmission across the T3 complete lesion site: (i) In intact animals, stimulation at C7 evoked a short latency (~3.0 msec), large amplitude response at T6. (ii) Transection of the cord at T3 completely abolished this response. (iii) In 4 of 6 lesion/grafted animals, recovery of an evoked response of prolonged latency (~5.5 msec) was observed. (iv) Re-transection of the spinal cord at T3, just rostral to the graft (green arrow), abolished the recovered evoked response. (C) Kynurenic acid (50 mM), a blocker of excitatory synapses, was applied to the graft to determine whether excitatory transmission across synapses in the graft was required to detect responses at T6. Indeed, kynurenic acid application substantially reduced the amplitude but not the latency of the evoked response. Also see Figure S6.