Fig. 4

Immunohistochemistry and RT-qPCR analysis of c-Jun in healthy and denervated human nerves. a–c represent nerve cross sections immunostained for c-Jun (brown) along with haematoxylin and eosin stain. The black arrow in the micrographs indicates a c-Jun positive Schwann cell. The x-axis in d-g represents Log (denervation time in days). In d and e the horizontal black dotted line represents the mean value obtained for the healthy nerve group. a Healthy sural nerve. b Biceps branch of the musculocutaneous nerve denervated for 30 days. c Axillary nerve denervated for 294 days with deteriorated morphology. d A scatter plot to represent the total number of c-Jun positive Schwann cells/mm² in denervated samples. e Nonparametric smoothing linear regression of the total number of c-Jun positive Schwann cells/mm². f RT-qPCR analysis of c-Jun mRNA expression across denervated samples. g Nonparametric smoothing linear regression of the c-Jun RT-qPCR data. Case numbers are attached to each data point for reference to Table 1 with descriptors of whether the samples were collected proximally or distally: m1 - Proximal part of the denervated stump of the biceps branch of musculocutaneous nerve. m2 - Distal part of the denervated stump of the biceps branch of musculocutaneous nerve. b1 - Proximal section of the denervated stump of the brachialis branch of musculocutaneous nerve. s1 - Denervated stump of suprascapular nerve. sa1 - Proximal section of the denervated stump of the spinal accessory nerve. sa2 - Distal section of the denervated stump of the spinal accessory nerve