Fig. 1.

Altered spatiotemporal level of CCL20 in the spinal cord after SCI. a The temporal profile (from 0 h to 28 days post-injury) of CCL20 mRNA expression in the spinal cord, as determined by qRT-PCR, shows that SCI leads to increased CCL20 mRNA level in the spinal cord, especially during the early period of SCI. b Mouse IgG levels of rat serum (from 0 h to 28 days post-injury), as determined by ELISA, are significantly increased in CCL20 mAb group and isotype control group from 6 h to 28 days post-SCI. CCL20 immunostaining at 1 day post-injury in the sham group (c), SCI group (d), negative control of the sham group (e), and negative control of the SCI group (f) indicates that CCL20 is mainly localized in the cytoplasm of gray matter neurons and glial cells. The brown staining represents positive CCL20 expression. Black arrow indicates the CCL20 positive neuron and glial cell. Scale bar = 100 μm. ⁺ P < 0.05, compared with the sham group; ^* P < 0.05, compared with CCL20 mAb group; &P < 0.05, compared with SCI group