Fig. 1

Impaired viral clearance in spinal cord injured mice. a Schematic of the experiment. Mice received a spinal cord injury (SCI) or laminectomy (Sham) at thoracic level T9 and 7 weeks later were infected intranasally with 1 × 10⁴ H3N2 (x31) influenza particles. An age-matched uninjured control group (CT) and a group receiving only a T9 laminectomy without injury were also infected and served as controls. Lungs were harvested 5- or 10-day post-infection for virus titer. b Viral titers were determined from lung homogenates isolated on day 5 and 10 post-infection. While all control uninjured mice cleared the virus, chronic SCI mice still had active virus in their lungs (mean ± SEM, 3 mice/group d5 and 10 mice/group d10, two-way ANOVA, **p < 0.01). Most of sham-operated mice had cleared the virus by day 10 (n = 8). ND not detectable. c Cumulative survival curves showed a significant increase in mortality among mice receiving a spinal cord injury compared to CT or Sham. Twenty-four to twenty-seven mice per group for CT and SCI, 8 mice/group for Sham, log-rank test, **p < 0.01