Fig. 3

Long-term functional recovery following SCI was unaffected by splenectomy. Schematic of experimental design for long-term assessment (a). Briefly, splenectomies were performed 4 days prior to clip-compression C7-T1 SCI, and the Wistar rats followed for 8-weeks with weekly standard behavioral testing. There was no significant difference (n = 10 per group) in grip strength, inclined plane trunk stability, BBB locomotor scale, and BBB sub-score (b). Data are expressed as percent mean ± SEM, and two-way ANOVA analysis was performed. There was also no difference in animal gait parameters analyzed by CatWalk at 6 and 8 weeks post-SCI (c). Representative gait images are shown (d). Data are expressed as percent mean ± SEM, and unpaired t tests were performed at each time point with no significant differences found