Figure 7.

Impact of the GDNF-loaded collagen hydrogel on primary dopaminergic neuron survival and striatal re-innervation. Each animal received a unilateral transplantation of 400,000 VM cells to the lesioned striatum and both cell survival and striatal re-innervation were assessed at 12 weeks post-transplantation. TH⁺ IHC was used to identify the number of surviving dopaminergic cells throughout the striatum and their ability to re-innervate the lesioned striatum. As expected, the delivery of GDNF with cells significantly increased their survival. However, when cells were delivered in a GDNF-loaded collagen hydrogel there was a significantly greater level of cell survival (Fig. 7A,C; five-fold increase vs. VM alone). Similarly, the delivery of cells with GDNF significantly increased their striatal re-innervation. However, the delivery of cells in a GDNF-loaded collagen hydrogel resulted in a significant increase in the volume of striatal re-innervation (Fig. 7B,C; three-fold increase vs. VM alone). Scale bars represent 1 mm or 100 µm (insert). Data are represented as mean ± SEM and were analysed by one-way ANOVA with post-hoc Bonferroni. ^* P < 0.05, ^*** P < 0.001 vs. VM alone; ^# P < 0.05, ^### P < 0.001 vs. VM in hydrogel; ⁺ P < 0.05 vs. VM & GDNF.