Fig. 2

Photomicrographs of transverse sections of “NAÏVE” Wistar rats brain (a–c), of control (CONT) Wistar rats brain (d–f), and BMMC-treated (BMMC) Wistar rats brain (g–i). a Representative site of microinjection of the anterograde Alexa Fluor 546-conjugated dextran neural tract tracer in the primary motor cortex (white open arrow). b Neurons (white arrow) situated in the cerebral cortex external pyramidal layer ipsilateral to the site of cortical deposits of the neurotracer that send projections (white arrowheads in c and d) to the contralateral neocortex. d Transverse section of the corpus callosum showing (white arrowheads) axons of cortico-cortical (e and f) and cortico-neostriatal (g) connexions. h Cerebral cortex ipsilateral to lesion showing neurotracer-labelled perikarya and fibres in the internal pyramidal layer (h) and in the fusiform cortical layer (i). j A histologically confirmed representative site of injection of the anterograde neural tract tracer Alexa Fluor 546-conjugated dextran in the primary motor cortex, on the right, illustrating (squares) the quantified areas for analysis of cortico-cortical and cortico-striatal projections. The effect of the transplantation of BMMC or vehicle-treatment on axonal sprouting in cortical layers surrounding the brain lesions (k) and in the neostriatum ipsilateral (l) and contralateral (m) to the cortical ablation were also demonstrated. Data were represented as mean ± S.E.M.; n = 6-9 rats per group; *p < 0.05, in comparison to the NAÏVE group, according to a one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc test. Scale bars: 200 μm on the panel a; 20 μm on the panels b–i