Fig. 1: Transplantation of neural progenitor cells of defined biological sex into sites of spinal cord injury.

a Experimental design. GFP⁺ E12.5 mouse embryos were genotyped to determine biological sex. Spinal cords from male or female embryos were pooled and neural progenitor cells (NPCs) were isolated. Male and female mice received spinal cord injury followed by immediate transplantation of either 100% female NPCs, mixed 50/50 male/female NPCs, or 100% male NPCs. Survival time was 4 weeks post-transplantation. FF female host, female graft, FX = female host, mixed graft, FM = female host, male graft, MF = male host, female graft, MX = male host, mixed graft, MM = male host, male graft. Image created with BioRender.com. b Genetic determination of embryo sex through PCR amplification of Rbm31x (269 bp) and Rbm31y (353 bp) gametologs. F female, M male. c Gross image of spinal cord explant containing a GFP⁺ NPC graft at spinal cord cervical level C5; dorsal view. d Representative image of an NPC graft at 4 weeks post-transplantation (female host with female graft). Host/graft boundary is indicated with a dotted line. GFP is expressed in all graft-derived cells; NeuN is expressed in all neurons; GFAP is expressed in astrocytes; DAPI labels cell nuclei. d', d'' GFP⁺ graft-derived cells colocalize with neuron- and astrocyte-specific markers. Scale bars = 1 mm (c), 100 μm (d), 20 μm (d', d''). Source data are provided as a Source Data file. The experiments in b were performed twice with similar results. The experiments in panels c-d were performed three times with similar results.