Fig. 8

Imatinib has no effect on pericytes covering microvessels but reduces inflammation and microvessel leakage after SCI. a Representative immunofluorescence images of CD31 (red), PDGFRβ (green), and DAPI (blue) in mice treated with intrathecal injection of imatinib or PBS (control) at 14 days post-injury (dpi). Enlarged images of the dotted line in the left panel are shown in the right panel. b Representative immunofluorescence images of CD31 (red) and fibrinogen (green) in mice treated as above. The lower panel shows high magnification image in the dotted box in the upper panel. c Representative immunofluorescence images of GFAP (green) and CD68 (red) in mice treated as described above at 14 dpi (upper panel) and 28 dpi (lower panel). Scale bars: 100 μm (a, upper panel in b and c) and 20 μm (lower panel in b). All images are from sagittal sections. d–f Quantification of the percentage of microvessel covered by PDGFRβ⁺ cells (d), fibrinogen leakage (e), and the CD68⁺ inflammatory area (f) in a–c. Data are expressed as mean ± s.e.m. n = 4–6 per group. NS, no significance; ***p < 0.001 versus control by unpaired two-tailed Student’s t test in d, e, and f