Fig. 1

microRNAs are differentially expressed in astrocytes from neurological control tissue versus astrocytes surrounding stroke lesions. A Hematoxylin and eosin staining of early acute (upper panel) and late chronic (lower panel) infarcts. Subtle rarefaction/vacuolization of the parenchyma, loss of viable neurons, and acute ischemic, hypereosinophilic neurons (inset) are visible in the acute lesion. Cavitation of the parenchyma with a rim of well-developed astrocytosis (inset) is visible in chronic infarct lesions. B–D GFAP + astrocytes were captured from white (WM) and gray (GM) matter of unaffected (Neurological Control) brain tissue and around acute or chronic stroke lesions using laser-capture microdissection (LCM). Around 35 cells were pooled from each slide for RT-qPCR assessment of microRNA expression. B Bright-field images showing a brain section before and after LCM of astrocytes. C Heatmap of microRNA (miR) expression in GFAP + astrocytes. Color code represents the fold change of miR expression in lesioned WM and GM astrocytes compared to respective neurological control astrocytes. miRs are grouped according to their associated function. D Histograms of miR-210 and miR-21 expression in GFAP + astrocytes. Data are presented as mean ± SEM of n = 5 donors, except for WM C for which n = 4. One-way ANOVA was used for significance testing with Dunnett’s multiple comparison test. All miRs with statistically significant differences between neurological control and disease conditions are graphed in red in part D. *p < 0.05