Figure 1

Immune cells in spinal cord ventral horn after VRA and EAE induction. Representative images of the sciatic nerve motor nucleus ipsilateral to the ventral root avulsion (VRA) in the studied groups. (A-C) CD4⁺ T cell immunolabeling. (D-F) CD8⁺ T cell immunolabeling. (G-I) CD11b-positive cell immunolabeling. A, D and G are ipsilateral to the VRA. B, E and H are ipsilateral to the VRA+EAE at peak disease. Observe the increased presence of T cells. C, F and I are ipsilateral to VRA+EAE during remission. (J) Graph representing the evolution of EAE in Lewis rats after immunization with MBP. (K) Schematic representation of sciatic nerve motoneurons in ventral horn of spinal cord after ventral root avulsion. One motoneuron is shown in detail with apposed presynaptic terminals. The dashed circles represent areas where measurements of the integrated density of pixels were performed. Scale bar = 50 μm.