FIG. 1.

Experimental schedule. Animals were pre-trained on the beam-walk test prior to controlled cortical impact (CCI) induction. Following behavioral pre-training, a left hindlimb deficit was induced via CCI to the rat motor cortex. Animals were randomly assigned to one of the following treatment groups: neural stem cell–derived extracellular vesicle (NSC EV), vehicle, or TBI control. Three doses of NSC EV (4e10 EVs/kg) or vehicle at 6 h, 24 h, and 48 h post-CCI were injected via tail vein. No injections were administered to the traumatic brain injury control rats following CCI. Behavioral assessment was performed on 4, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days post-CCI.