Fig. 5

NPC delivery does not influence brain atrophy in the sub-acute stroke phase in hyperlipidemic mice but moderately increases microvascular branch volume and mean branch diameter in the lesion core. A Brain atrophy evaluated by cresyl violet staining of MCAO mice on normal diet or cholesterol-rich Western diet, which were intravenously treated with vehicle or adult NPCs immediately after reperfusion (as before), followed by animal sacrifice after 14 days. B, C 3D light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) of cerebral microvessels of the same mice, which were intravenously labeled with FITC–albumin hydrogel immediately before animal sacrifice followed by brain clearing and imaging, as outlined in the Materials and methods section. Representative axial overview images with magnification images depicting the regions of interest in the ischemic striatum and cortex [in (B)] and representative maximum intensity projection images in the ischemic striatum for the four groups [in (C)] are shown. D Quantitative analysis of microvascular length density, branching point density, branch volume, mean branch length, and mean branch diameter evaluated by 3D LSFM in the ischemic cortex and striatum of MCAO mice on normal diet and Western diet, which were treated with vehicle or NPCs. Data are medians (lines inside boxes)/means (crosses inside boxes) ± interquartile ranges with minimum/maximum values as whiskers. *P < 0.05 (n = 6 mice for normal diet/vehicle, n = 6 for normal diet/NPC, n = 5 for Western diet/vehicle, n = 5 for Western diet/NPC). Scale bar, 1 mm [in (A)], 500 μm [in (B)] and 100 μm [in (C)]