Fig. 4

Increased stroke area and neuronal apoptosis was observed 72 h after MCAO in 12-month-old mice. a Representative images of cresyl violet staining showing stroke area in 3- and 12-month-old mice 72 h after MCAO. b Quantification of stroke area reveals an increase in the ischemic region in 12-month-old mice 72 h after MCAO. c Western blots of cytoplasmic lysates from 3- and 12-month-old mice using cleaved caspase-3 72 h after MCAO. d Normalized densitometry values of immunoblots 72 h after MCAO reveal a significant increase in the levels of cleaved caspase-3 in 12-month-old mice suggesting more tissue damage 72 h after MCAO. e Double immunofluorescence of the brain cortex sections of 3 and 12-month-old mice 72 h after MCAO using caspase-3 antibody (green) and NeuN (red) antibody show neuronal apoptosis in both age groups. Quantified data in the figure was presented as mean ± SEM and statistical significance between the groups was achieved using unpaired t test and depicted as ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01