VEGF expression following spinal cord injury in rats. SC – sham-operated controls, PBS – PBS transplantation, NSCs – normal NSC transplantation, VNSC – recombinant VEGF-NSCs transplantation. (A) VEGF mRNA expression post-transplantation, where VNSC exhibit maximum VEGF expression. (B) Western blot analyses of VEGF expression at protein level. (C) Quantification of VEGF protein expression. (D) Immunohistochemical staining of VEGF and CD34 to determine the post-transplantation effect of VEGF on spinal cord sections (400×). (E) Quantification of VEGF-positive cells using Image-Proplus v 6.0 software. The quantification was done by taking 10 photo-micrographs, and the number of positive VEGF stained cells was measured. The total number of the positively stained cells was expressed as percentages relative to the total number of cells in the analyzed section. Values are expressed as mean ±SEM, * p<0.05 compared to sham-operated controls; # p<0.05 compared to NSC.