Figure 1

Effect of MK801 treatment on histological alterations and on hind limb motor disturbance of the spinal cord tissue 24 h after injury. Spinal cord samples were collected from perilesional area and were stained with H&E and silver impregnation. The number of analyzed samples represents the number of animals studied (N = 10). (a): no histological alteration was observed in tissue sections obtained from sham-operated mice stained with H&E. (b): a significant damage to the spinal cord was assessed in SCI-operated mice stained with H&E. (c): a strong protection from SCI was observed in the tissue collected from mice treated with MK801 at the dose of 2 mg/kg administered i.p. 30 min and 6 hours after trauma stained with H&E. In sham-operated mice a normal presence of reticular and nervous fibers was observed by silver impregnation (d). On the contrary, in the spinal cord tissues collected at 24 hours after SCI an important alteration of reticular and nervous fibers was observed (e). MK801 treatment at the dose of 2 mg/kg administered i.p. 30 min and 6 hours after trauma appreciably reduced the alteration of reticular and nervous fibers associated with SCI (f). The histological score (g) was evaluated by an independent observer. The degree of motor disturbance was assessed every day until 10 days after SCI by Basso mouse scale (BMS) open-field score. Treatment with MK801 at the dose of 2 mg/kg administered i.p. 30 min and 6 hours after trauma reduces the motor disturbance after SCI (h). This figure is representative of at least 3 experiments performed on different experimental days. ND: not detectable. Values shown are mean ± s.e. of 10 mice for each group; *p < 0.01 vs Sham; °p < 0.01 vs SCI