Fig. 3
Mitochondrial characterization of MG/MDM far from and near the spinal cord injury (SCI) site in the dorsal column. Representative 5 nm per pixel scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of MG/MDM far (A) and near (B) the SCI site in the dorsal column of lower thoracic spinal cord of 8-week-old female SCI mice. Quantitative graphs representing the number mitochondria (both altered and non-altered) per MG/MDM cell body (C), the number of non-altered mitochondria (D), the number of altered mitochondria (E), the ratio of altered mitochondria over all mitochondria (F) and the relative percentage of MG/MDM cell bodies that are positive for at least one altered mitochondrion within their cytoplasm (G). Data are expressed as individual dots and are shown as means ± SEM. *p < 0.05, using a non-parametric Mann–Whitney test. Statistical tests were performed on n = 10–14 MG/MDM per animal with N = 3 mice/group, for a total of 79 cell bodies analyzed. Red outline = cytoplasmic membrane, yellow outline = nuclear membrane, ma = non-degraded myelinated axon, dma = degraded myelinated axon, blue asterisk = fully digested phagosome, pink asterisk = myelin phagosome, 3rd = tertiary lysosome, black dotted line = zoom in insert, yellow arrow = non-altered mitochondria, green arrow = altered mitochondria