Fig. 3From: Apelin alleviated neuroinflammation and promoted endogenous neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation after spinal cord injury in ratsIdentification of primary cultured neural stem cells (NSCs) and evaluation of their proliferation after administration of Apelin or its inhibitor ML221. A Morphology of NSCs under a light microscope, scale bar = 100 µm (left), 50 µm (middle) or 25 µm (right). B Identification of primary cultured NSCs, scale bar = 130 µm. C, D Multi-differentiation potential of NSCs was assessed by GFAP+ cells (green) and Olig2+ cells after 14 d, scale bar = 130 µm or 120 µm. Proliferation of NSCs under different dosages of Apelin and its inhibitor ML221 were determined by CCK8 assay at 24 h (E), 48 h (F), and 14 d (G) after SCI (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 vs. normal group, mean ± SD)Back to article page