Top: Schematic of nervous tissue construct (green) transplanted into a spinal cord lesion spanning three vertebrae (white).
Bottom left, upper & lower: Double and triple labeling identified surviving dorsal root ganglia clusters with elongated axons at the edge of transected spinal cord injury lesions at 2 months post-transplant. Scale bars = 50µm.
Bottom middle, upper & lower: Double labeling identified surviving elongated axon fascicles in the middle of transplanted region at 2 months post-transplant. Scale bars = 50µm.
Bottom right, upper: Double labeling identifies axonal outgrowth of graft axons into host tissue at the host-graft interface, penetrating through the collagen hydrogel.
Bottom right, lower: Axonal outgrowth from nerve graft into the host, penetrating collagen hydrogel. Scale bars = 50µm.

Image Credit: Douglas H. Smith, MD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine