Fig. 1: Histological analysis of murine and human nerve explants.

a Experimental setup. TPI timepoint post injury, EM electron microscopy. b Age and sex distribution of patients. Red and black dots represent female and male patients respectively (n = 40 patients; 22 males, 18 females). Box shows 25th to 75th percentiles and median patient age (yellow line), whiskers show min (18 years) to max (72 years). c–n Murine (c–h) or human (i–n) nerves stained for axons (βIIITUB) and SCs (S100β) before or 48 h after injury. Inserts in d, g, j, m show higher magnifications. Arrows indicate SCs with round morphology, arrowheads point at SCs with distorted morphology. o–t EM pictures of murine (o–q) or human (r–t) nerves. Arrows (p, q, s, t) show degenerated myelin, arrowheads (q, t) demyelinated axons. u, v Quantification of axon numbers in murine (u) or human (v) nerves at different time points. (at 0 h, 2 h, 24 h, 48 h n = 10, 10, 9 and 7 biological replicates for murine and n = 31, 26, 19 and 13 for human samples respectively). w, x Quantification of SC numbers in murine (w) or human (x) nerves at different time points. (at 0 h, 2 h, 24 h and 48 h, n = 12, 9, 10 and 7 biological replicates for murine and n = 23, 19, 15 and 13 for human samples respectively). Each circle represents a single nerve sample. All error bars show SD. Two-sided Mann–Whitney test was used to calculate statistical significance (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.005, ***P < 0.001). y Quantification of intact or degenerated myelin sheaths of EM pictures of human and murine nerves as indicated. Numbers indicate independent biological replicates analysed. Two-sided T-test was used to calculate statistical significance (P value 24 h = 0.0004, P value 48 h = 0.0024). All bars show mean with SD. Statistical significance is shown by asterisks (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.005, ***P < 0.001). Scale bar in c is 50 µm and applies for c–n. Scale bar in o is 10 µm and applies for o–t. Source data (u–y) are provided as a Source Data file.