Fig. 5

IL-21R is upregulated in the ipsilateral brain hemisphere of mice 24 h after tMCAO in vivo and in human stroke brains. a Low (top panels) and high (bottom panels) magnification representative IHC images stained with NeuN (red), IL-21R (green), and merged of contralateral brain hemisphere (left) and ipsilateral brain hemisphere (right) from mice 4 h after tMCAO. b Map of IL-21R/NeuN double-positive cells across coronal planes of mouse brains at 4 h tMCAO. Higher density of green dots represents a higher number of double-positive cells (n = 6). c Quantification of the percentage of NeuN-positive cells that are positive for IL-21R in the contralateral caudate, ipsilateral caudate/thalamus and ipsilateral cortex (n = 6). d Quantification of the proportion of neurons expressing IL-21R (relative co-localization per cell) in the contralateral caudate, ipsilateral caudate/thalamus and ipsilateral cortex (n = 6). e High magnification representative IHC images stained with NeuN (red), IL-21R (green), and merged in human acute stroke brains (top) and control brains (bottom). f Quantification of the percentage of NeuN-positive cells that are positive for IL-21R in human stroke and control stroke brain. (n = 4) Scale bar = 15 μm. White arrows indicate NeuN+ IL-21R+ cells. Murine data are combined from four independent experiments. Data represent mean ± s.e.m. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001. n.s. = not significant. One-way ANOVA followed by Dunn’s post hoc test (c, d) and Student’s t test with Mann–Whitney U test (f)