2 french fogarty catheter

A lesion was created via a balloon-induced spinal cord compression as previously detailed (Vanicky et al., 2001; Urdzikova et al., 2006). This model was chosen for its relevance to closed injuries, with vertebrate body and arch preserved, leading to a higher validity of local immune response after SCI. Briefly, approximately one centimeter of a 2-French Fogarty catheter (Edwards, Irvine, CA, USA) was inserted into the epidural space through a laminectomy at T₁₀, aligned with the midline of the spinal cord and inflated for 5 minutes. The volume of the inflated balloon was adjusted to 15 μL and the function was carefully checked in every animal. Immediately after SCI, rats received daily (for 28 days after SCI) intraperitoneal doses of curcumin (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA; 6 mg/kg, diluted in olive oil), EGCG (Sigma-Aldrich, 17 mg/kg, diluted in PBS), or their combination, and weekly intramuscular injection (1, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days post-SCI, surrounding lesion area) of curcumin (60 mg/kg in olive oil (Ormond et al. 2014), Sigma), EGCG (17 mg/kg, diluted in PBS (Tian et al., 2013; Renno et al., 2015), or a combination of both drugs.