Fig. 2

Microglia were activated in the spinal cord in the early stages of SMIR. a. Mechanical allodynia evaluated by the paw withdraw threshold (n = 10). b Representative images of immunofluorescence staining with Iba1 on lumbar spinal cord sections from rats (n = 4). Scale bar: 50 μm and 200 μm, respectively. c–e ELISA results for IL-1α, TNFα, and C1q in the spinal dorsal horn of rats (n = 3). The expressions of IL-1α, TNFα, and C1q in the sham group were set as 1 for quantification purposes. f Quantification of the mean fluorescent intensity of Iba1 positive cells in the spinal cord horn (n = 4). g Quantification of the number of Iba1 positive cells per square millimeter in the spinal cord horn (n = 4). Compared with sham rats, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001; compared with baseline, ^####P < 0.0001. BL: baseline; d: day; DAPI: nuclear staining; IBA1: ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1; ipsi: ipsilateral; SMIR: skin/muscle incision and retraction