Fig. 9.

Silencing NEAT1 protects against ischemia-induced brain damage. All mice were exposed to 45 min of MCAO. a, b Laser speckle images show the effect of ASO scramble or ASO NEAT1 on cortical blood circulation at 7dpi. c–e Statistical analysis of laser speckle measurements is shown for the contralateral cortex, the ipsilateral cortex, and for the ratio ipsilateral to contralateral in mice exposed to MCAO at 7dpi. f–i Knockdown of NEAT1 reduces post-ischemic motor coordination impairment, which was evaluated using the test of rotarod (f), the balance beam (g), the tightrope (h), and the paw slip (i) on day 1 before the stroke and day 7 after the stroke. All results are expressed as mean ± standard deviation and analyzed by Student's t-test or two-way ANOVA (n = 8 mice per experimental group for laser speckle measurements and 12 mice for behavior tests) followed by Tukey's post-hoc-test. NS, no significance, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001. Abbreviations: ASO, antisense oligonucleotide; MCAO, middle cerebral artery occlusion; NEAT1, nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1; dpi, day post-ischemia