FIG. 5.

Moderate C6 injury results in hindlimb dysfunction. (A) BBB scoring demonstrates a significant decrease in locomotor function in C6-injured animals, compared to laminectomy only controls (L.O.; two-way analysis of variance [ANOVA]; *p<0.001; L.O.=4, C6 injured=16). In C6-injured animals at 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 weeks post-injury, there was a significant improvement in BBB score, as compared to 1 and 2 weeks post-injury (Tukey's post-hoc test; p=0.05). (B) CatWalk analysis revealed that C6 injury results in decreased swing speed in the hindlimbs. (C) Print intensity is reduced in the hindlimbs of C6-injured animals at all time points. (D) Print area is significantly reduced in C6-injured animals at all time points postinjury. At 6 weeks post-injury, print area is significantly decreased (Tukey's post-hoc test; p=0.043), as compared to 2 weeks post-injury. (E) Hindlimb limb stride length is not significantly reduced, compared to uninjured animals, until 6 and 8 weeks post-injury. (F) Pseudocolored paw prints showing representative walking patterns for laminectomy animals and animals that are 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks post-injury. For laminectomy only, both fore- and hindlimb prints are shown; for injured animals, only hindlimb prints are represented (CatWalk analysis: n=4 in the laminectomy-only group and n=5 in the C6-injured group; two-way ANOVA with Tukey's post-hoc test; p<0.05). All data are represented as mean±standard error of the mean. Asterisks represent values that are significantly different from laminectomy-only animals. Black bars represent laminectomy-only, and gray bars represent C6-injured animals. BBB, Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan. Color image is available online at www.liebertpub.com/neu