Fig. 3

Brain PCs express the stem cell markers following ischemia. Brain PCs expressed the neural stem cell marker nestin on post-stroke day 3 (a–c). Although nestin was highly expressed in ischemic areas (a, b), it was rarely observed in non-ischemic areas (a, c) (nestin (b, c red), DAPI (b, c blue)). Nestin⁺ cells within the ischemic core were localized near CD31⁺ endothelial cells (d-g) (nestin (e, f green), CD31 (e, g red), DAPI (e–g blue)) and the majority also expressed PDGFRβ (h-k) (nestin (i, j green), PDGFRβ (i, k red), DAPI (i–k blue)). In addition, nestin⁺ cells located within ischemic areas also expressed the stem cell marker Sox2 (l-o) (nestin (m, n green), Sox2 (m, o red), DAPI (m–o blue)). Scale bars = 100 μm (b, c) and 20 μm (e, i, m) PDGFRβ platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β