Fig. 4

Following SCI, DNA damage is present in neurons at 1 dpi and γH2AX-related early cell death at 1 hpi and 1 dpi. Longitudinal spinal cord sections of SCI, sham, and naive mice were labeled for γH2AX (magenta), NeuN (yellow), and DAPI (cyan). a Representative images of the affected areas of SCI, sham, and naive spinal tissue at different time points. b Timeline of neurons with γH2AX foci represented as the fold change of naive mice. Neurons with double-stranded DNA breaks are significantly increased in SCI groups at 1 hpi compared to sham and naive mice. c Timeline of neurons with γH2AX pan nuclear signal represented as the fold change of naive mice. Neurons with pan signal are significantly increased in SCI groups at 1 hpi and 1 dpi compared to sham groups and at 1 hpi, 1 dpi, and 3 dpi compared to naive mice. ANOVA was applied with Šídák’s correction for multiple testing (b) and Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s correction for multiple testing (c). n = 6–10. Error bars represent means ± SD. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001