Figure 3

Localization of Fluorescently decorated Nanoparticles in Spinal Cord. (a) ~ (d) The evaluation of injury-specific localization of TMR-PSiNPs to injured and uninjured parenchyma using fluorescence microscopy. Crushed injured vs. uninjured spinal cord tissue are shown by fluorescence microscopy with 50 μm thick frozen sections. (a) Compression injured cord section while (b) ~ (d) uninjured spinal cord tissues with a distance of 1 cm, 2 cm, and 3 cm from crush-injured spinal cord site. Obviously, crushed injury caused intense uptake of large amounts of TMR-PSiNPs represented by significant labeling, especially in gray matter. (e) Quantification of fluorescent intensity in injured and uninjured spinal cord with background fluorescence normalized by subtraction of background fluorescence (see methods). Results are expressed as a percent of the uninjured values ± SD (n = 5). **P < 0.001, ***P < 0.005.