Fig. 5

Effects of si-PUMA and PFT-α on behavioural function, neuroapoptosis and cleaved caspase 3 levels after IR. a Hind-limb motor function was assessed at 12-h intervals during the 48 h reperfusion period by Tarlov scores. b Representative micrographs of TUNEL (green) and DAPI (blue) staining in the anterior horns of grey matter at 48 h post-IR. Scale bars = 500 μm. c Quantification of the TUNEL-positive cells in the anterior horn as averaged from three independent experiments. d Representative micrographs of nuclear morphology as determined by staining with DAPI at 48 h post-IR. Scale bars = 50 μm. The arrows indicated the abnormal morphology of nuclei. e Quantification of morphological abnormalities in the nuclei of spinal anterior horns as averaged from three independent experiments. f Representative western blots of cleaved caspase 3 protein levels in the cytoplasm at 48 h post-IR. β-actin was used as the loading control. g Quantification of the relative protein level of cleaved caspase 3. Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05 versus the sham group. *P < 0.05 versus the IR group