Fig. 1

Redistribution of blood flow after permanent MCAo (pMCAo) in C57BL/6 P9 mice using ultrasound Doppler and laser speckle contrast (LSC) imaging. a Variation in mean blood flow velocity (mBFV) in the large cerebral arteries (lICA left ICA, rICA right ICA, BT basilar trunk) 1 h after pMCAo and administration of PBS and/or sildenafil (10 mg/kg; n = 6 per group). b, c Representative color-coded LSC images (b) and time-course of cortical blood flow (c) taken in basal, upon MCAo, shortly after sildenafil treatment (Tr, PBS, and/or sildenafil, Sil, 10 mg/kg), and after 5, 15, 60, and 90 min in three ROIs (ROI 1, core; ROI 2 and ROI 3 close and far away from the penumbra, respectively). BF is expressed in arbitrary units (A.U.) according to the color-coded scale (0 to 1500)