Figure 4

Nanoparticle Labeling in Injured and Uninjured Spinal Cord. (a) ~ (d) The evaluation of accumulation of TMR-SiNPs (without PEG conjugation) to injured and uninjured parenchyma using fluorescence microscopy. (a) Compression injured cord section, and (b) ~ (d) uninjured spinal cord tissues with a distance of 1 cm, 2 cm, and 3 cm from crush-injured spinal cord segment. It was not surprising that specific interaction in the uptake of TMR-SiNPs was not observed when PEG was not a component of the complex. (e) Quantification of fluorescent intensity in injured and uninjured spinal cord with background fluorescence normalized and with the subtraction of background fluorescence (see methods). Results are expressed as a percent of the uninjured values ± SD (n = 5).