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Improving neurological outcome after spinal cord injury is a major clinical challenge because axons, once severed, do not regenerate but ‘dieback’ from the lesion site. Although microglia, the immunocompetent cells of the brain and spinal cord respond rapidly to spinal cord injury, their role in subsequent injury or repair remains unclear. To assess the role of microglia in spinal cord white matter injury we used time-lapse two-photon and spectral confocal imaging of green fluorescent protein-labelled microglia, yellow fluorescent protein-labelled axons, and Nile Red-labelled myelin of living murine spinal cord and revealed dynamic changes in white matter elements after laser-induced spinal cord injury in real time. Importantly, our model of acute axonal injury closely mimics the axonopathy described in well-characterized clinically relevant models of spinal cord injury including contusive-, compressive- and …