Fig. 4

Implantation of nerve protectors repopulated with GMSC-derived Schwann-like cells improves functional recovery of crush-injured rat sciatic nerves. At 4 weeks post-injury and implantation, functional recovery of crush-injured sciatic nerves was analyzed. a Compound muscle action potential (CMAP) recordings of the gastrocnemius muscles of both the injury site and the contralateral naive side of rats (n = 4 for each group) following stimulation from either proximal or distal to the injury site. b Analysis of motor nerve conduction velocity of both the injury side and the contralateral normal side of rats (n = 4 for each group). c, d Measurement of foot printings and sciatic functional index (SFI). e, f Measurement of the wet weight of gastrocnemius muscles of all animals from different groups, and the ratio was calculated individually (ratio = the weight of the injury side/the weight of contralateral naive side; n = 6). Data are shown as the mean ± SD. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ns, no significance. One-way ANOVA with Tukey’s posttest. Abbreviations: NP, nerve protector; NP/GiSCs, nerve protector repopulated with GMSC-derived Schwann-like cells (GiSC)