Fig. 2

Depletion of microglia limits tissue softening after SCI. (A) Schematic of the mice treated with PLX5622. The CSF1R inhibitor PLX5622 was administered by intraperitoneal injection twice daily from 3 days before injury to 14 dpi. (B, C) Sagittal immunofluorescence images for microglia (CX3CR1, red) and astrocyte (GFAP, green) from injured mice treated with vehicle and PLX5622 at 7 (B) and 14 dpi (C). Region a represents the GFAP⁻ lesion core, and region b represents the GFAP⁺ penumbra region. Scale bar: 100 μm. (D) Quantitative analysis of the density of microglia in vehicle and PLX5622 groups. (E, F) Comparison of the elastic properties of lesion core (a, E) and penumbra region (b, F) in mice treated as described above shown in (B) and (C). (G, I) Sagittal immunofluorescence images for the astrocyte markers GFAP (green, G) and vimentin (green, I) from uninjured mice and injured mice treated with vehicle and PLX5622 at 7 and 14 dpi. The nuclei were marked with DAPI (blue). Scale bar: 100 μm. (H, J) Percentage quantification of GFAP⁺ area (H) and vimentin⁺ area (J). The lesion core was marked with the asterisks. n = 3 animals in (D), (E), (F), (H), and (J). ns, no significance; **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001 by two-way ANOVA