Early neurogenesis during caudal spinal cord regeneration in adult Gekko japonicus

Gekko japonicus undergoes dramatic changes in the caudal spinal cord after tail amputation. The amputation induces cell proliferation in the caudal ependymal tube. We performed hematoxylin and eosin staining at different time points in the regeneration process to investigate the morphological characterization of the regenerated appendages. The central canal extended to the blastema post-amputation and the cartilage and muscle tissue appeared 3 weeks after injury. We performed the bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation assay to detect proliferating cells during the regeneration process. BrdU positive cells were detected in the peri-central canal. Furthermore, nestin and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) immunocytochemistry were applied to detect neural stem/progenitor cells and neurons. Two weeks after injury, nestin-positive cells undergoing proliferation were located outside of the ependymal tube, and NSE positive cells appeared after 3 weeks of amputation. These data suggest that neurogenesis is an early event during caudal spinal cord regeneration in gecko.