Figure 1.

Improved VWM Pathology and Motor Dysfunction after Glial Cell Transplantation

(A) Strength of hind and front paws combined as measured on a grip strength meter in Newton. VWM saline (VWMsal) mice have significantly less strength in their paws compared with WT saline (WTsal) mice. This was similar for mice injected with A2B5⁺ and GLAST⁺ GPC populations. Mice that received PDGFαR⁺ GPCs did not show significant differences with the VWMsal mice or WTsal mice.

(B) Time to cross the balance beam (in seconds) for all groups of mice. VWMsal mice were significantly slower than WTsal mice, but all cell-treated groups showed a significant improvement.

(C–E) Representative pictures of the VWM disease markers in WT, saline-treated, and cell-transplanted VWM mice (mouse 29) that showed improvement. (C) NESTIN and GFAP double staining in the corpus callosum. (D) S100β staining; big arrows show translocated Bergmann glia, small arrows show correctly located Bergmann glia. (E) Plp in situ hybridization.

(F) Quantification of the disease markers in all animals. Every data point represents an individual mouse. WT mice: n = 4, black; VWM saline mice: n = 7, gray; VWM transplanted mice: n = 19, red. The circles in black and gray illustrate the range of values of WT and saline VWM mice, respectively. In both plots a number of transplanted animals cluster more with the WT animals than with the saline-treated mice; these mice are indicated with numbers.

Graphs in (A) and (B) show mean of individual mice ± SEM. WTsal n = 36, VWMsal n = 31, A2B5 n = 9, GLAST n = 7, PDGFαR n = 6. ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01. Scale bars, 50 μm. See also Figure S1A.