Figure 2.

Recruitment of IL-4Rα⁺ cells to the injured spinal cord was impaired in aged mice. Adult female (3–4 months) and aged female (18–22 months) BALB/c mice were subjected to a T9 laminectomy (Lam) or SCI. After 1 dpi or 3 dpi, enriched CD11b⁺ cells from the spinal cord were isolated. A, Representative dot plots of CD11b/CD45 and CD11b/GR-1 labeling for microglia (CD11b⁺/CD45^lo) and peripherally derived granulocytes (CD11b⁺/CD45^hi/GR-1^hi) and macrophages (CD11b⁺/CD45^hi/GR-1^lo). B, Relative number of granulocytes associated with the spinal cord (SC) out of 10,000 live cells (n = 4–5). C, Relative number of IL-4Rα⁺ granulocytes, microglia, and macrophages (MΦs) associated with the spinal cord out of 20,000 live cells (n = 4–5). D, Relative number of IL-4Rα⁺ and IL-4Rα⁻ macrophages associated with the spinal cord out of 10,000 live cells (n = 4–5). E, Percentage of IL-4Rα⁺ macrophages of the total macrophage population associated with the spinal cord (n = 4–5). Error bars represent the mean ± SEM. Means with *p < 0.01 are significantly different and means with ⁺p = 0.09 tend to be different from their Age-matched-Lam control. Means with ^#p < 0.04 are significantly different from Adult-SCI-1 dpi.