Quantitative assays were performed as described previously [6 (link), 7 (link)]. Mice were transplanted with medium (n=3) or MGE cells (n=5) 1 week after the last injection of paclitaxel, and killed 2 weeks after transplantation. Naïve (uninjured) mice (n=3) were also used as controls. We rapidly dissected the lumbar spinal cord that contained the transplants (a comparable region was dissected from naïve animals) and divided the cord into ipsilateral and contralateral halves (containing both dorsal horn ventral tissue). We extracted mRNA from the spinal cord tissue using the RNeasy Minikit from Qiagen and then reverse-transcribed 200 ng of purified mRNA into cDNA using Superscript III (Invitrogen). The mRNA levels for GAD65, GAD67 and β-actin were quantified with a Realplex2 real-time PCR system (Eppendorf) using SYBR Green PCR Master Mix (Applied Biosystems, Warrington, UK). Ratios of GAD65 and GDA67 to β-actin mRNA were compared and analyzed by a two-way ANOVA.