Fig. 5

Immunohistochemistry and RT-qPCR analysis of p75NTR in healthy and denervated human nerves. a-c represent nerve cross sections immunostained for SOX10 (brown) and P75 p75NTR (red) along with haematoxylin and eosin stain. The black arrow in the micrographs indicates a SOX10/p75NTR 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. The brown staining represents a SOX10 positive nucleus whilst the red cytoplasmic staining represents p75NTR positive staining. c Axillary nerve denervated for 294 days with deteriorated morphology. d A scatter plot to represent the total number of p75NTR positive Schwann cells/mm² in denervated samples. e Nonparametric smoothing linear regression of the total number of p75NTR positive Schwann cells/mm². f RT-qPCR analysis of p75NTR mRNA expression across denervated samples. g Nonparametric smoothing linear regression of the p75NTR 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