Figure 1

Schematic illustration of the compression injury to the ex vivo spinal cord tissue. The bottom left shows the compression injury and adjacent uninjured sites from with 1 cm, 2 cm, and 3 cm gap (site #1, #2, #3). The upper right shows the front and side view of modified forceps with a détente 0.8 mm in width when closed by pressure against the spacer. The isolated spinal cord was placed between the tips of the forceps to induce the compression injury by squeezing for 15 sec against the spacer. The graphic is somewhat exaggerated for the purposes of illustration.