Fig. 3

PDGF-BB is mainly distributed around the injury core and is of various cellular origins. a Representative immunofluorescence images taken in the spinal cord of uninjured mice and injured mice at 3, 7, 14, and 28 days post-injury (dpi) showing that PDGF-BB (green) is predominantly distributed around the lesion core and closely correlated to the spatiotemporal distribution of PDGFRβ (red). b Quantification of the percentage of PDGF-BB⁺ area. c Representative immunofluorescence images of microvascular endothelial cells (CD31, red) and PDGF-BB (green) in the spinal cord of uninjured mice and injured mice at 3, 5, and 7 dpi. d Quantification of the percentage of PDGF-BB⁺ microvessels out of the total microvessels. e, f High magnification z-stack images of the dotted area in a and c are shown below as the region of interest in e and f, respectively. The lesion core is marked with asterisks. g, h Representative immunofluorescence images of GFAP⁺ astrocytes (red, g) and CD68⁺ microglia/macrophages (red, h) with PDGF-BB (green) at 5 dpi. The nuclei are stained with DAPI (blue). Data are shown as mean ± s.e.m. n = 4 mice per time point. Scale bars: 100 μm (a and c) and 10 μm (e–h). All images are from sagittal sections. ND, not determined; NS, no significance; **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc test in b and d. 3, 5, and 7 dpi versus 0 dpi in d