Figure 3.

Neural precursor cell transplantation in subacute cervical spinal cord injury confers white matter preservation. (A): Cross-sectional tissue stained with luxol fast blue and hematoxylin and eosin reveals a severe, bilateral lesion epicenter at C6 with spared circumferential tissue in NPC- and vehicle-treated groups. (B, C): More white matter was present in NPC-treated animals compared with the vehicle group (62.3% vs. 50.4%) (B), whereas gray matter was not different (C). (D): Lesion morphometry of NPC versus vehicle groups demonstrates no difference in cavitation (open) and nonsignificant decrease in lesional tissue (shaded; 3.8% vs. 12.9%, respectively; p = .09). (E): Assessment of ventral horn atrophy (dashed line), neuron (arrowhead), and α-motor neuron loss (arrow) was performed to assess specific motor preservation. (F–H): There were no statistically significant differences following NPC transplantation despite greater size of ventral horn volume (F) and larger number of α-motor neurons (G) and total neurons (H) remaining. ∗, p < .05. Abbreviations: DAPI, 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole; NeuN, neuronal nuclei; NPC, neural stem/precursor cell.