Fig. 3

Assessment of cytokine levels. Spinal cords were harvested at 24 h and 7 days post-SCI and ELISAs were used to quantify IL-10 (a, b), TNFα (c, d), and IL-1β (e, f) in the injury site at each time point. The MCM+IL-10 treated rats had significantly higher levels of IL-10 at both 24 h and 7 days than the Controls, Local IL-10, and MCMs. Rats with the MCM+IL-10 and Systemic IL-10 treatments had less TNFα and IL-1β than the Controls, Local IL-10, and MCMs at 24 h. There was no significant difference in IL-1β levels at 7 days. All data is presented as percent increase from uninjured rats. *P < 0.05 in reference to Controls, Local IL-10, and MCMs (Tukey’s Test); error bars represent ± SEM; n = 7 for each time point