Fig 2: Gene expression of chemokines and their receptors after spinal cord injury (SCI).Expression of Ccl2 (A), Ccl3 (B), Ccl4 (C), Ccl7 (E), Cxcl1 (F), and Cxcl2 (G) significantly increased on post-operative day (pod) 1. In contrast, increases in Ccl5 (D) expression were observed on pod 14. Increases in gene expression were observed for all chemokine receptors (H—L) on pod 1. While Ccr1 (H), Ccr3 (J), and Cxcr2 (L) expression decreased by pod 7, Ccr2 (I) and Ccr5 (K) levels remained significantly elevated on pod 14. All data are expressed the relative level (fold) to compare with pod 0 (basal level) after normalization against Gapdh as a housekeeping gene (n = 6 mouse at each time-point). Data are expressed as mean ± SEM. *: P<0.05, **: P<0.01 (Dunnett’s post hoc test, vs day 0).

Fig 3: Localization of CCL5 and CCR5 after spinal cord injury (SCI).(A) CCL5+ cells were observed at the peri-injury site on pod 14 and were merged with NeuN+ (red) and F4/80+ (red) cells, respectively (arrows). However, CCL5+ cells were not merged with GAFP+ cells (red). (B) CCR5+ immunoreactivity (green) was observed in the epicenter on pod 1, and merged with Ly-6G+ cells (red) (arrows). (C) CCR5+ cells (green) were observed at the peri-injury site on pod 14, and were merged with NeuN+ (red with arrows) and F4/80+ (arrows with dashed lines) cells. (D) F4/80+ cells (red) on pod 14 co-stained with Ym1+ immunoreactions (green), a marker for M2-type alternatively activated MG/MF (arrows). Nuclei were detected using DAPI.