Fig. 2

CSO treatment alleviated neuronal injury in the ischemic penumbra. A(a) HE staining showing cell morphologic changes in the ischemic penumbra 24 h after reperfusion. Scale bars = 10 μm. Black arrows represent the cell outline was clear and structure was compact. Red arrows represent the cells were arranged sparsely, cell outline was fuzzy, and structure was disorder. A(b) Nissl staining showing morphological neuronal changes in the ischemic penumbra 24 h after reperfusion. Scale bars = 10 μm. Black arrows represent the intact neurons with flush cell bodies. Red arrows represent the injured neurons with shrunken cell bodies accompanied by shrunken and pyknotic nuclei. A(c) TUNEL staining showing the neuronal apoptosis in the ischemic penumbra 24 h after reperfusion. Scale bars = 10 μm. Black arrows represent the intact cells with flush cell bodies. Red arrows represent apoptotic nerve cells with shrunken and pyknotic nuclei. A(d) NeuN staining showing the survival of neurons in the ischemic penumbra 24 h after reperfusion. Scale bars = 20 μm. B The percentage of complete cells (HE⁺), intact neurons (Nissl⁺), neuronal apoptosis (Tunel⁺), and living neurons (Neun⁺) in the ischemic penumbra. ^##p < 0.01 vs. Sham-Con group, ^*p < 0.05 vs. MCAO-Con group. n = 5 per group