Figure 5.

Histo‐pathological evaluation of lesioned spinal cords. Representative micrographs of spinal cord tissue sections at 7 days post injury from animals treated with Matrigel or Matrigel + adipose tissue stromal cell (ATSC) extracts. A. Sections stained with Cresyl Echt Violet and Luxol Fast Blue. Longitudinal dark blue stained cells are nerve cells within the lesion site. Normal and ATSCs extract injected spinal cord tissue was characterized by thick myelin structures across the entire control dimension of the dorsal and the ventral columns and throughout the anterior‐posterior extent of the lesions. Neurons that potentially escaped death (arrows) are indicated. B. Spinal cord tissue sections stained with Cresyl Echt Violet and Luxol Fast Blue. The dotted circle indicates the demyelinated region in the injured spinal cord. Scale bar = 20 µm. C. Transmission electron microscopy of spinal cord tissue harvested from Matrigel only treated animals at 1 week post injury and Matrigel + ATSC extract treated animals at 1 and 2 weeks post injury. Note that myelin sheaths were largely destroyed in the Matrigel only treated animals, while those treated with the ATSC extracts preserved a significant degree of normal myelination (arrow). A = Axon; E = Edema; SCI = spinal cord injury.