Figure 2

Establishment of a traumatic brain injury model and implantation of a C1A1 porous hydrogel into the mouse brain. (a) Illustration of the traumatic brain injury model in mice. The mouse brain was aspirated off as a cylinder shape, 1 mm in diameter and 1 mm in depth (left and middle), and a C1A1 porous hydrogel was implanted into the defect (right). Schematic figure was prepared by Procreate (version: 5X. https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/procreate/id425073498). (b) Stereoscopic image of a brain defect. (c) Stereomicroscopic analysis of the implanted C1A1 hydrogel in the brain defect through a cranial window on days 0, 10, 22, 35, and 108. (d) Macroscopic analysis of the coronal section of the implanted C1A1 porous hydrogel in the brain defect on days 1, 21, and 56. A brain defect without implantation is shown (right). Bars indicate 2 mm for the lower magnification in the photograph. White boxes indicate higher magnification images of the implanted gels. (e) Histological analysis of brain defects by H&E staining with (upper panels) or without (lower panels) implantation of the C1A1 porous hydrogel on days 1, 21, and 56 (upper panels). The volume of the defect was determined as a hypothetical cylinder. The section with the largest defect area in the coronal section was selected, and the area of the defect drawn from the cortical surface of the telencephalon to the hippocampus was measured with Fiji. The volume of the virtual cylinder was calculated by multiplying the measured area by the diameter of the defect. Each area was graphed as the mean ± SEM. ***P < 0.001. n = 5, each.