Figure 4.

PRV Retrograde Tracing of Transplanted NSC-Derived Neurons in the Injury/Graft Site of Spinal Cord

(A) A schematic diagram showing injection of PRV as a neuroanatomical tracer into the sciatic nerve. This resulted in transsynaptic and retrograde labeling of the grafted NN, thus demonstrating it as neuronal relays that can rebuild the synaptic integration with host neural circuits.

(B) Representative images showing that the MAP2⁺ (purple) host or NSC-derived neurons (arrowheads) were retrogradely labeled by PRV (red) in the rostral and caudal areas to and in the injury/graft site of spinal cord in the GS (B1–B6), GS + EA (B7–B12), NN (B13–B18), and NN + EA (B19–B24) groups.

(C) Bar chart showing the number of PRV-labeled neurons in the T9, T10, and T11 areas in 4 groups (n = 3/group; one-way ANOVA with LSD t, ^∗p < 0.05 indicates significant difference from GS group; ^#p < 0.05 indicates significant difference from GS + EA; ^&p < 0.05 indicates significant difference from NN group).

Scale bars: 20 μm in (B1)–(B14), (B17)–(B20), (B23), and (B24); 10 μm in (B15), (B16), (B21), and (B22).