Fig. 2: Transmuscular reinnervation of the skin.

(n = 12 for all stainings, biological replicates) A Anti-NF staining of the musculocutaneous junction. The densely dashed line separates the muscle fibers (*) from the dermal graft. The loosely dashed line marks a nerve fiber bundle crossing from the muscle into the overlying skin. The small arrows highlight different reinnervating nerve fibers in the skin. B A Meissner corpuscle in the graft with the typical lamellar morphology visualized through anti-S100 staining (green). The corpuscle is reinnervated by an NF-positive fiber (red). C, D Overview of the apical aspect of the transplanted skin. The larger arrows point to the re-established S100- (green) and NF-positive (red) dermal plexus. The small arrows point at Merkel disks located at the epidermal-dermal junction (dashed line) with NF-positive reinnervating nerve fibers (red). The epidermis is marked with an (*). (NF neurofilament).