Fig. 1

Deferoxamine provides vasospasm-independent neuroprotection and improves cognitive outcome after subarachnoid hemorrhage—cortical and hippocampal damage, cognitive outcome, and middle cerebral artery (MCA) vasospasm were measured in the following treatment groups in wild-type (WT) mice: subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) sham + vehicle, SAH + vehicle, SAH + intraperitoneal (IP) deferoxamine (DFX), and SAH + intracerebroventricular (ICV) DFX. a Image stained with DAPI (magenta) located at the anterior hippocampus. b Representative TUNEL (red) stained images of cortical and hippocampal sections from each treatment group with DAPI (blue) nuclei counterstain on post-operative day (POD) 7 (scale bar = 20 μm). c Quantification of TUNEL-positive cells for each group. The least amount of cortical and hippocampal damage was seen in the SAH + ICV DFX group followed by the SAH + IP DFX group. (Two-way ANOVA P < 0.05; *P < 0.05; n = 5 per group). d Morris water maze testing of WT mice cognitive outcome for each group. Inset, bar graph of data for POD4, 5, and 7 show the SAH + ICV DFX mice performed significantly better than the SAH + vehicle group on POD4 and 5 and significantly better than the SAH + IP DFX on POD4. Both SAH + IP DFX and SAH + ICV DFX groups performed significantly better than SAH + vehicle mice on POD7 (two-way ANOVA P < 0.05; *P < 0.05; n = 5 per group). e Image stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) located adjacent to the anterior hippocampus. f Representative H&E stained images of MCA from each group on POD7 (scale bar = 10 μm). g Quantification of MCA vasospasm measured by lumen radius/wall thickness (LR/WT) quotient. DFX did not decrease vasospasm seen in the SAH + vehicle group (one-way ANOVA P < 0.05; *P < 0.05 SAH sham + vehicle versus SAH + vehicle; n = 5 per group)