Timeline and scheme of in vivo experiment.

A) Rats were pre-trained on the Montoya staircase test and the horizontal ladder for three weeks. One week before the SCI (pyramidotomy) animals were injected with AAVs overexpressing FGFR1 or mCherry into the sensorimotor cortex innervating the less preferred paw. During spinal cord surgeries the medullary pyramids were cut unilaterally in the brainstem innervating the preferred paw of all animals. Three days post-surgery the animals were assessed behaviourally and thereafter every week for ten weeks. Four weeks prior to the end of the study all animals were injected with BDA on the same side as to the vector injection. B) Scheme of the different surgical procedures. 1) Injection of AAVs expressing either CMV-FGFR1-2A-EGFP or CMV-mCherry-2A-EGFP, 2) unilateral pyramidotomy, 3) BDA injection for axon tracing, and 4) counting fibres that sprouted over the cervical midline.