High-resolution intravital imaging reveals that blood-derived macrophages but not resident microglia facilitate secondary axonal dieback in traumatic spinal cord injury.

ABSTRACT: After traumatic spinal cord injury, functional deficits increase as axons die back from the center of the lesion and the glial scar forms. Axonal dieback occurs in two phases: an initial axon intrinsic stage that occurs over the first several hours and a secondary phase which takes place over the first few weeks after injury. Here, we examine the secondary phase, which is marked by infiltration of macrophages. Using powerful time-lapse multi-photon imaging, we captured images of interactions between Cx3cr1(+/GFP) macrophages and microglia and Thy-1(YFP) axons in a mouse dorsal column crush spinal cord injury model. Over the first few weeks after injury, axonal retraction bulbs within the lesion are static except when axonal fragments are lost by a blebbing mechanism in response to physical

SUBMITTER: Evans TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3954731 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature