Figure 4.

Effects of EPC-CM on the histomorphology of the injured rat spinal cord.

(A) Representative images of NF200 immunostaining in the gray matter at the lesion site (upper panel, scale bar: 100 μm; nuclei are stained blue, and positive cells are stained brown) and cavities by HE staining (lower panel, original magnification, 40×; nuclei are stained blue, and the cytoplasm is stained pink). (B) Quantitation of NF200-positive density and areas of cystic cavities (cavity extent/spinal cord extent × 100%) in the various groups. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, vs. PBS group; #P < 0.05, ##P < 0.01, vs. Con-M group. Data are presented as the mean ± SD (one-way analysis of variance followed by the least significant difference post hoc test). The experiment was performed at least three times. PBS: Phosphate-buffered saline; EPC-CM: endothelial progenitor cell-conditioned medium; Con-M: control medium; HE: hematoxylin-eosin; NF200: neurofilament 200.