Fig. 6: Porous collagen scaffolds safely delivered embryonic NSCs at the SCI lesion and enabled NSC differentiation towards both neurons and astrocytes in vivo.

a Representative immunofluorescence images of sagittal sections stained for bovine collagen I, BrdU, and L1 at the lesion epicenter, 6 weeks post injury. Dashed line indicates the approximate lesion boundary. Scale bars, 50 μm. b High-magnification immunofluorescence images and orthogonal views at the lesion epicenter, 6 and 9 weeks post injury. Cellular colocalization of BrdU⁺ nuclei with cytoplasmic Tuj1 or GFAP are marked by white and yellow asterisks, respectively. Scale bar, 10 μm. c Immunofluorescence images of a parasagittal section acquired inside the graft 6 weeks post injury. Left: section stained for TH, Vglut1, and Tuj1. Right: second harmonic emission by residual scaffold collagen in the same location. Scale bar, 10 μm. d, e Immunofluorescence image of a parasagittal section acquired inside the graft 6 weeks post injury. The sections were stained for Vglut1, Tuj1, and BrdU (d) or Vglut1, Tuj1, and TH (e). Scale bars, 10 μm.