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. 2004 Mar 3;24(9):2143–2155. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3547-03.2004

Figure 4.

Figure 4.

Failure of blood-brain barrier repair after ablation of reactive astrocytes adjacent to stab SCI. A-D, Transverse sections of upper lumbar spinal cord after longitudinal stab SCI (arrowheads) in GFAP-TK transgenic mice not given GCV (A, C; Tg no GCV) or GFAP-TK transgenic mice given GCV (B, D; Tg+GCV). A, B, Immunohistochemical staining for IgG viewed by bright-field microscopy. C, D, Fluorescence microscopy of Alexa 488-tagged dextran (molecular weight, 70,000). At 14 d after stab SCI in control mice, IgG and dextran are excluded from parenchyma adjacent to the injury, indicating that the blood-brain barrier has repaired as expected (A, C); similar results were obtained in n = 5 mice. At 14 d after stab SCI in GFAP-TK mice given GCV, IgG and dextran continue to enter neural parenchyma, indicating that the blood-brain barrier has failed to repair in the absence of reactive astrocytes (B,D); similar results were obtained in n = 5 mice. Scale bars, 100 μm.