Fig. 3: bPAC stimulation promotes early and sustained locomotor recovery after SCI.

A Experimental design for functional evaluation in bPAC and Control SCI rats for 35-day after dorsal hemisection (n = 9 rats/group). B Immunostaining images for GFAP (red) and Neun (green) and the quantification of both GFAP negative area and NeuN gap distances as indicators of injury extension. C Pie-charts of the percentage of Control and bPAC rats with or without weight support and plantar stepping capacity at ten days post-injury. D Measurement of iliac crest height as an indicator of weight-bearing capacity (p = 0.002 at 6dpi and 0.0007 at 10 dpi). E Performance of bPAC and Control rats in ladder (left) and narrow (right) beam tests (p = 0.02, 0.06, 0.02 and 0.045 at 17, 23, 29 and 35 dpi respectively). F Hind-limb kinematics at the endpoint of the experiment (35 days) in Control and bPAC rats compared to uninjured Control rats as shown by the hip (top), knee (middle), and ankle (bottom) angle range. G Principal component analysis of combined locomotor parameters in Control and bPAC rats; bbb: Basso, Beattie, Bresnahan test; pln: inclined plane test; nb: narrow beam test; lb: ladder beam test; ci: crest iliac height. Numbers indicate the days post injury; (H) Thermal test of the front paws (as an internal control) and hind paws in Control and bPAC rats. I Quantification of CST state rostral and caudal to the injury as given by the area positive for the anterograde tracer (mCherry) (p = 0.0077). J Sagittal images of the CST state in control and bPAC rats (Scale bar:1000 μm). Data is presented as a mean ± SEM with statistical significance set as *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and *** p < 0.001 for comparisons two-tailed Fisher’s LSD (C–E and H) or two-tailed un-paired t-test (I). Scale bars=1000 mm. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.