Fig. 3
MSCmix and NCSCmix intraspinal cell graft influences lesion environment. After 3D reconstruction of spinal cord sections (a) stained with Luxol Fast Blue-Neutral Red (b), we evaluated the lesion volume in each group, which tends to be reduced in NCSC- (black) and MSC-grafted mice (dark grey) compared to controls (light grey) (b). We translated the evaluated lesion area on the next adjacent section to quantify the expression of GFAP, Iba1 and laminin. The GFAP-immunoreactive (ir) (c) and laminin-ir area (e) did not differ between the three groups, but the Iba1-ir area was a bit increased in MSC-grafted spinal cord sections (d). We also observed the presence of arginase 1-ir cells, not in control mice (f) but only in NCSC- (g) and MSC-grafted mice (h). The little rounded cells (h’) were more abundant in MSC- than in NCSC-grafted mice (i), and were recovered close to laminin-ir blood vessels (j), (k). (n = 6 to 7, one-way ANOVA and HSD post-test, *p < 0.05; ***p < 0.01). Scale bar = 500 μm (a to e), 200 μm (f to h), 20 μm (double, h’, j, k). MSC mesenchymal stem cell, NCSC neural crest stem cell, GFAP glial fibrillary acidic protein, ANOVA analysis of variance, HSD honestly significant difference