Wnt ligands expression in the spinal cord of adult rats following SCI.

<p>All Wnt ligands except for <i>Wnt3</i>, <i>3a</i>, <i>8a</i> and <i>8b</i> were constitutively expressed in the non-injured adult spinal cord. After SCI, 3 main patterns of Wnt ligand expression were observed: i) <i>No change or slight reduction</i> (<i>Wnt7a</i> and <i>10a</i>); ii) <i>early induction</i> (<i>Wnt1, 2a, 2b, 7b, 10b, 15</i> and <i>16</i>); and iii) <i>late induction</i> (<i>Wnt4, 5a, 5b, 6, 9</i> and <i>11</i>). All analyses were performed using total RNA samples isolated from a 1 cm long fragment of the spinal cord from non-lesioned control animals (C) and fragments containing the wound from contused animals at different times post-injury (6 and 24 hpi and 3, 7, 14 and 28 dpi). Expression of rat Wnt ligand genes was assessed by qRT-PCR using specific primers (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0027000#pone-0027000-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a> and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0027000#pone.0027000-Rawal1" target="_blank">[47]</a>) and normalized to ribosomal <i>18S</i> expression. Values for each experimental group and day are expressed as mean ± SEM, n = 3. Each animal/sample (“n”) was measured in triplicate in two occasions (2 independent technical triplicates, 6 measurements per sample). *p<0.05 compared with C.