Fig. 2.

BMS, rotarod test, beam walking test and dynamic touch test performances after mild SCI. (A) Long-term observation of BMS scores. The motor function of the hind limbs was tested using BMS before (pre) the injury, 3 hours and 3 days after the injury and every week from 1 to 10 weeks after the injury (n = 14). (B) Accelerating rotarod test. Average retention time on the rod was measured before the SCI (pre), 3 hours and 3 days after the SCI and every week from 1 to 3 weeks after the SCI (n = 10). (C, D) Performance in the beam walking test was expressed by the distance the mice walked on the beam (C) or by percentage of mice that did not drop from the beam (n = 14) (D). The test was performed before the SCI, 4 hours and 3 days after the SCI and every week from 1 to 10 weeks after the SCI. (E) Dynamic touch test of sham-operated (n = 6) and mild SCI (n = 6) mice at 4 h, 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks and 4 weeks after SCI. The number of paw withdrawal from 10 stimuli of gentle touch was shown. The mean values are shown on the graphs. The value at each point was compared with that of pre-SCI. Friedman test followed by Scheffe test, *p < 0.05. The values at each time point were also compared between sham and mild SCI groups. Mann-Whitney's U test, #p < 0.05.