Spontaneous recovery from spinal cord contusion at T7 and T9. Rats were subjected to spinal cord contusion under deep anesthesia and immediately injected systemically with PBS. Recovery was assessed by the BBB open-field test at the indicated time points by observers blinded to the treatment received by the rats. Results are expressed as the mean values for each group (error bars indicate SEM). The differences, tested by repeated ANOVA, were significant (T7,n = 25; T9, n = 12;p < 0.003).