Fig. 10

SCI mice in both male and female display neurological dysfunction at 19 months post-injury. A Survival plot of male and female mice in months elapsed for study. Compared to sham mice for either sex, SCI injury groups of both sexes showed decreased survival rates, with no difference in survival between biological sex. Kaplan–Meier survival curves were analyzed using the log-rank Mantel–Cox test. B BMS scores were recorded weekly to quantify hindlimb locomotor recovery after SCI. C, D Spontaneous alterations in Y-maze showed no injury or sex differences between groups, but total arm entries showed significant decrease in SCI groups of both sexes. E, F Novel object recognition (NOR) test showed significant decrease in exploration time of the novel object in both sexes after chronic SCI with no differences between male and female. G-H Assessment of depression-like behavior with novelty suppressed feeding (NSF) showed significant increase of latency time reach food in a novel arena (G) for SCI/M and SCI/F mice compared to Sham group, while SCI/F mice were even slower to reach the food in their respective home cages (H). **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 vs. Sham group; ^###p < 0.001 vs. SCI/M group. Two-way ANOVA following Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. n = 13 for Sham groups, 13 for SCI/M, and 14 for SCI/F