WT mice were randomly divided into the following 4 treatment groups: no i.t. injection, saline i.t. injection, and recombinant mouse CXCL1 (at 1 ng/5 µl/mouse or 10 ng/5 µl/mouse) i.t. injections. Injections were given daily from day 6–13 post-L5Tx. Body weight of all animals were monitored from before the initiation of the experiment (baselines) until the end of the experiment, day 20 post-L5Tx. Data are shown in males (A) and females (B) separately due to that the initial statistical analysis suggested sex differences (mean ± SEM, n = 6). # p < 0.05 between the saline group and the high dose CXCL1 (10 ng /5 µl) group, and ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1 compared to “no injection” group.