Fig. 7. VEGF rescues poor recovery caused by neural stem cell ablation.

a Experimental timeline. Both groups used GFAP-TK mice given GCV to ablate neural stem cells (n = 12 mice per group). Animals were injected with either AAV5-Ef1α-eGFP (AAV-eGFP) or AAV5-Ef1α-VEGF-P2A-eGFP (AAV-VEGF-eGFP) in layer V of peri-infarct cortex. b Image illustrating AAV targeting of peri-infarct cortex (representative of 24 mice). Asterisk indicates lesion core. c Confocal images validating that AAV-VEGF-eGFP induces VEGF expression (representative of 3 mice per condition). d AAV-VEGF-eGFP improved motor recovery on the single seed reaching task. Significant time x group interaction F(4, 88) = 15.9, p < 0.0001. **p = 0.0018, ***p < 0.0001, two-way repeated measures ANOVA and post-hoc Sidak’s multiple comparison tests. e Representative confocal images and quantification (F) of vasculature show that AAV-VEGF-eGFP increased peri-infarct vessel density relative to AAV-eGFP mice. ***t(22) = 5.3, p < 0.0001, two-tailed t test. n = 12 mice/group. g Representative confocal images of new endothelial cells (BrdU⁺ ERG⁺, arrows) in peri-infarct cortex. h The number of BrdU⁺ ERG⁺ nuclei was significantly greater in AAV-VEGF-eGFP mice. ***t(22) = 6.0, p < 0.0001. Two-tailed t test. n = 12 mice/group. i Representative images and quantification (j) of dendritic spine density. Spine density was significantly higher in AAV-VEGF-eGFP mice. ***t(22) = 4.8, p < 0.0001. Two-tailed t test. n = 12 mice/group. Apical dendrites were sampled from layer II/III between 100 and 800 μm from the infarct border. 2825 spines were counted along 10.2 mm total length of dendrite in AAV-eGFP mice. 3231 spines were counted along 9.3 mm total length of dendrite in AAV-VEGF-eGFP mice. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. Where individual datapoints are shown, datapoints representing males are shown as circles; datapoints representing females are shown as squares. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.