Fig 1.
Representative response of proximal MCA to rose bengal-mediated photothrombotic occlusion.
A) View of proximal MCA before occlusion under a stereoscopic microscope (upper panel) and on MRA (lower panel). B) View of occluded proximal MCA (white arrows) under a stereoscopic microscope (upper panel) and on MRA (lower panel).
Table 1.
Neurological deficit scores in the photothrombotic stroke and sham groups at 24 hours after MCA occlusion.
Fig 2.
The evolution of the infarct volume on MRI.
A) The brain lesions were detected by T2WI, ADC map and DWI at different time points. The curving midlines (white arrows) indicate a severe brain edema. B) The ADC map showed relatively larger lesion volumes at 1 hour (*p<0.05) versus DWI, 3 hours and 6 hours (*p<0.05), and versus T2WI. The relative lesion volumes on DWI and T2WI reached a maximum and matched well with those on ADC map at 12 hours (p>0.05), On T2WI, the lesion volumes at 12 and 24 hours were larger (#p<0.05) versus that at 3 hours; while on DWI the volumes at 12 and 24 hours were larger (#p<0.05) versus that at 1 hour.
Fig 3.
The reproducibility of infarct volume.
A) The lesions at 24 hours after occlusion were showed on T2WI (left side) and TTC slices (right side). B) The relative lesion volumes on the TTC-stained slices showed no difference from those on T2WI (p>0.05). For Nissl staining, representative images contrasted the ipsilateral (C) and contralateral zone (D). The white arrows indicated that the nucleus of neurons appears with karyolysis and pyknosis in the lesion.
Fig 4.
The penumbra at one hour after occlusion on MRI.
A) Representative slices from one mouse. Red colored areas represented low perfusion areas on the CBF map or hypointense areas on the ADC map, respectively. On the same map, meanwhile, the light blue colored areas represented the matching areas, which were regarded as the infarct lesions; while the negative mismatch areas were showed in dark blue. And the yellow colored areas represented the mismatching areas, this indicated the penumbra. The penumbra was shown as not only surrounding the lesions but also in the lesions. B) The CBF map on PWI showed considerably larger averaged relative lesion volumes (in percent of ipsilateral hemisphere) (*p<0.05; versus the ADC map). Several potential penumbra markers stains were performed to confirm the location of the penumbra, such as c-fos (C) and HSP-90 (D). The ipsilateral hemispheric slices were taken with a 2.5× objective lens. And the peri-infarct and the infarct areas were taken with a 10× lens indicated by triangle and pentacle, respectively. In both the peri-infarct and infarct areas, c-fos was readily detected, which was also consistent with the HSP-90 staining.