Fig. 1

Humanised NSG-SGM3 mice have worse functional recovery from SCI compared to non-humanised controls. A Experimental timeline. NSG-SGM3 pups were irradiated and engrafted with human CD34 + (huCD34 +) stem cells. Mice received spinal cord injury (SCI) surgery at 10 weeks post-engraftment. Functional recovery was assessed weekly using the Basso Mouse Scale (BMS). B Percentage of human CD45 + (huCD45 +) out of all live circulating cells at 8 and 16 weeks-post engraftment (n = 7 per timepoint; 5♀, 2♂). C Comparison of the change in engraftment efficiency between individual mice. Asterisk highlights significant temporal increase in huCD45 + cell when removing one animal with engraftment failure (n = 7 per timepoint; 5♀, 2♂). D Representative immunofluorescent images of spleens from non-engrafted NSG-SGM3 and humanised NSG-SGM3 (huNSG-SGM3) mice, at 16 weeks post-engraftment, stained for huCD45 (red; A488), mouse CD45 (msCD45; green; A647) and Hoechst (cyan). Scale bar is 50 μm. E Pooled BMS scores for huNSG-SGM3 (blue; n = 7) and NSG-SGM3 (green; n = 23 (14♀, 9♂) for days 0–7 post-SCI; n = 17 (9♀, 8♂) for days 14–35 post-SCI) mice following SCI. F BMS scores at 42 days post-injury (dpi) for huNSG-SGM3 (n = 7; 5♀, 2♂), non-humanised NSG-SGM3 (n = 17; 9♀, 8♂), and C57BL/6 J mice (orange; n = 19; 15♀, 4♂). Data are mean ± SEM for all graphs, with statistical analysis being either a paired t-test (B, C), two-way ANOVA (E), or one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc (F); *, p < 0.05; ****, p < 0.0001; ns, not significant