Fig. 3.

Stages after spinal cord injury. Schematic drawings of longitudinal sections of the rat spinal cord after injury. (A) In the acute stage (e.g. 1 day after injury), the lesioned area is filled with debris from dead cells and fills with fluid caused by bleeding. (B) In the chronic stage (e.g. 6 weeks after injury), the lesioned area becomes filled with a fibrotic scar and is surrounded by a dense rim of reactive astrocytes in the spared (not directly injured) white and gray matter. The fibrotic core becomes denser with time and contains the cells that deposit the extracellular matrix, as well as inflammatory cells (mostly macrophages) (not shown).