Expression of Lcn2 in Spinal Tissue upon Moderate Contusive SCI
(A) Representative western blot image of Lcn2 (24 kDa) and GFAP (53 kDa) expression, and densitometric quantification of n = 3 blots (right). β-actin (42 kDa) is used as loading control. Results are mean values relative to sham controls (±SEM). ∗∗∗p < 0.001, versus sham. Control sham-treated mice (laminectomy only) were sacrificed 7 days post laminectomy. (B and C) qRT-PCR quantification of Lcn2 (B) and Gfap (C) expression, reported as a relative quantification (RQ), versus Gapdh. Data are mean values (±SEM) from n = 3 mice. ∗∗∗∗p < 0.0001, versus sham. Control sham-treated mice (laminectomy only) were sacrificed 7 and 28 days post laminectomy, and the average of the two time points has been used. (D) Relative percentages of cell types expressing Lcn2 in the spinal cord at 1 dpi. Data are expressed as mean % of double-positive cells over the total number of Lcn2-positive cells (±SEM) from n = 3 mice. Representative immunofluorescence micrographs of cells co-expressing Lcn2 and GFAP (arrows, right). Nuclei in D were stained with DAPI (blue). Scale bar, 20 μm. dpi, days post injury.