Selected spinal cord cross sections with H&E staining are shown here to reflect a normal thoracic cross-section caudal to lesion area of an injured rat (a); a spinal cord cross section with approximately 49% (close to goal hemisection injury) spared tissue remaining (b); and a spinal cord cross section with 38% (close to average) spared tissue remaining (c). Spared spinal cord tissue has been outlined to demonstrate full cross-section area (a) and distinguishing between spared and injured tissue (b & c).
For all sections (n=15), spared tissue remaining was 39.39% (16.44), average (standard deviation) Dorsal/ventral (D/V) and right/left (R/L) orientation and 500 um scale bar indicated for spinal cord cross sections, taken at 2.5x magnification