Figure 3.

HE and LFB staining of sham, vehicle, and NSC groups at 4 weeks after injury.

(A) Under the light microscope, spinal cords in the vehicle group demonstrated obvious signs of compression following spinal cord injury, such as damaged organizational structures. Three random fields of view from each section were analyzed. Scale bars: 100 µm. (B, C) Number of positive cells or percentage of staining intensity were calculated and averaged. Contents of the pane were enlarged to observe morphological changes.Sham group: Nuclei were regular in shape, deeply stained, and showed neuronal survival. Vehicle group: Nuclei were fragmented and disappeared, the staining was shallow, nerve fibers were unevenly arranged, and fewer neurons survived. NSC group: Nuclei were deeply stained, showed slightly dense cytoplasm, and more neurons survived than in the vehicle group. LFB staining of the sham group revealed neatly arranged myelin sheaths. LFB staining in the vehicle group showed that nerve fibers were sparse, disordered, and formed syringomyelia. LFB-stained sections in the NSC group showed obviously reduced syringomyelia compared with the vehicle group. Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM (one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s post hoc test). Experiments were performed in triplicate. HE: Hematoxylin-eosin; LFB: Luxol fast blue; NSC: neural stem cell.