Fig. 2: Micro-environment of vascular lesions in lumbar spinal cord.

High-resolution X-ray phase contrast tomography (XPCT) describes the micro-environment of vascular lesions in lumbar spinal cord of an experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)-induced mouse at disease onset. a XPCT image showing a portion of the lumbar spinal cord in coronal view. The arrow highlights the presence of a lesion with a large accumulation of cells around vessels. Scale bar = 50 μm. b 3D-rendering of the micro-environment around the vascular lesion. The features are segmented with different colors: in white the small cells surrounding the vessel (yellow), in green and blue morphologically neuron-like cells. Inset: schematic representation of the localization of the vascular lesion of (a) and (b) in the spinal cord. The image was obtained by reprocessing the data used to produce a figure from our recent work²¹. c XPCT image of star-shaped cells located in the anterior horn of EAE-induced mouse, compatible with neurons provided with processes, dendrites, or axons. Scale bar = 25 μm. d 3D-rendering of star-shaped cells (blue) surrounded by capillaries (yellow). e, f XPCT images with well-visible dashed structures (white arrows) compatible with axons wrapped by myelin sheath (scale bar = 50 μm). In (e), near the lesion (yellow arrow) the dashed structure seems to lose its periodicity and to become less bright (white arrow). Clinical EAE score at the onset = 1.5. Images a–c, e, f were obtained as maximum intensity projections of XPCT volumes (a over 15 μm; c over 10 μm; d, e over 10 μm). XPCT images were acquired in Experiment 2, reported in Methods.