Fig. 8

BBCA suppresses blood vessel damage in the post-ischemic brain (A) BBCA (50 µg/kg) was administered intranasally either once immediately after suture removal (0 h BBCA) or twice at 48 and 72 h (48/72 h BBCA) post-MCAO. (B-D) Coronal brain sections were prepared from the cortical penumbra at 7 d post-MCAO, and double-stained with anti-rat endothelial cell antigen-1 (RECA-1) antibody and DAPI. Representative images are presented (B), while RECA-1-positive vessel densities are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 12 from 4 animals) (C) and total vessel lengths measured using AngioTool software 0.6a (https://angiotool.sofware.informer.com/0.6) are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 12 from 4 animals) (D). (E, F) Brain sections stained with biotinylated rat anti-IgG antibody and the IgG-positive area was measured using Scion Image 4.0 (https://scion-image.sofware.informer.com/). (G, H) FITC-dextran (60 mg/kg) was injected intravenously 6 h prior to sacrifice at 7 d post-MCAO and coronal brain sections with FITC-dextran images were acquired with confocal microscopy (G) and FITC intensity was measured using ImageJ (https://imagej.nih.gov/ij/download.html) (H). (F, H) The data are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 4 for IgG staining and n = 12 (4 sections from 3 animals) for FITC-dextran images). Scale bars in B represent 200 μm, while those in G represent 100 μm. Sham, sham-operated animals; MCAO, saline-treated MCAO control animals; MCAO + 0 h, BBCA-administered at 0 h MCAO animals; MCAO + 48/72 h, BBCA-administered at 48 and 72 h post-MCAO animals. **p < 0.01 compared to sham controls and ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, ^###p < 0.001 compared to MCAO + saline controls