Fig. 4

a-c Comparison of stride length, step wide between treated and untreated rats and footprinting analysis. At defined points in time the rats’ hind feet were inked and they were encouraged to walk over a white strip of paper. The stride length (a) and step width (b) of 12 adult male Wistar rats (n = 6: treated; n = 6: untreated) was measured before surgical procedure (T1), 6 weeks after surgical treatment, before start of treatment (T2) and before finalization, after two weeks of treatment (T3). A representative exemplary image of the measurement procedure is shown. The image shows the gait pattern of an animal prior to surgery (c). le: left, ri: right leg