Fig. 7
The presence of non-phosphorylated filaments as an indicator of axonal damage. Ten weeks after SCI immune staining with Smi32 antibody (red) was combined with myelin basic protein-IR (green) and Hoechst-33342 nuclear staining (blue). a-f Overview of transverse spinal cord sections at intervals of approximately 3.2 mm from 8 mm anterior to 8 mm posterior of the lesion site; 5x objective, scale bar in a. Note the presence of Smi32-binding in the ascending dorsal columns anterior but not posterior of the lesion site and in white matter tracts in all sections. g Non-phosphorylated neurofilament in ascending fiber tracts anterior of the site of injury, 20x objective. h-i Higher magnification of Smi32-IR in white matter (h) and motor neurons in the ventral horn (i), 40x objective, scale bar in i. No Smi32 staining was observed in the white matter of animals without SCI (see Fig. 8)