Fig. 1: Blood-spinal cord barrier leakage and lesion in lumbar spinal cord.

The images show X-ray phase contrast tomography (XPCT) imaging and quantification of blood-spinal cord barrier leakage and lesion in lumbar spinal cord of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)-induced mice. a–d XPCT images showing the sagittal views of the lumbar spinal cord in a naïve mouse (a) and in EAE-induced mice at 3 days post induction (dpi) (b), 7 dpi (c), and disease onset (d). In (c) and (d) the vessels arising from the anterior spinal artery appear surrounded by numerous clouds of extravasated material reflecting the intense blood-spinal cord barrier dysfunction in the EAE-induced mice. Scale bar = 500 μm. e Quantification of the number of damaged vessels with respect to the total number of vessels in lumbar spinal cord samples of EAE-induced mice (n = 3 per group). The data are presented as mean ± SEM. f, g XPCT images showing the axial view of lumbar spinal cord of EAE-induced mice at 7 dpi (f) and onset (g). The insets and the arrows highlight the presence and the localization of clouds. At 7 dpi (f), vascular degeneration appears to involve vessels arising from the anterior spinal artery (inset). In contrast, at onset (g) the lesion becomes more extensive, involving also vessels arising from minor arteries (arrows and blue inset). Scale bar = 200 μm. h Quantification of the number of damaged vessels over the total number of vessels, separately for vessels originating from the central artery (orange) and for vessels originating from secondary arteries and venules (blue), in lumbar spinal cord samples from EAE-induced mice at 7dpi and onset (n = 3 per group). The data are presented as mean ± SEM. Clinical EAE score at the onset = 3. Images a–d, f, g were obtained as maximum intensity projections of XPCT volumes (a–d over 150 μm; f, g over 100 μm). XPCT images were acquired in Experiment 1, reported in Methods.