Fig. 1

Pericytes detach from the vascular wall and contribute to fibrotic scarring after SCI. a Representative immunofluorescence images of microvessels (CD31, red), pericytes (PDGFRβ, green), and DAPI (blue) in the spinal cord of uninjured mice and injured mice at 3, 7, 14, and 28 days post-injury (dpi). High magnification images of the dotted area are shown below as the region of interest (ROI). The asterisks denote the lesion core. PDGFRβ⁺ pericytes are tightly connected (arrows) with or detached from (arrowheads) the vascular wall. Scale bars: 100 μm (upper panel) and 20 μm (lower panel). All images are from sagittal sections. b–d Quantification of the percentage of CD31⁺ microvessel area (b), PDGFRβ⁺ pericyte area (c), and PDGFRβ⁺ cells associated with microvessels (d) in the lesion core after SCI. n = 4 per time point. Data are shown as mean ± s.e.m. NS, no significance; **p < 0.01 by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc test in b–d. D, V, R, and C represent the dorsal, ventral, rostral, and caudal sides of the injury, respectively