Pioglitazone (1mg/kg) IP or vehicle (DMSO) was administered to rats IP 24 hours before and again at the time of MCAO. Occlusion was maintained either permanently or for two hours. Animals were sacrificed at 24 hours and infarct volume calculated (A). Pioglitazone failed to effect infarction volume during permanent MCAO (B; Mann Whitney U p=0.9; n=4 (DMSO, permanent MCAO); n=3 (pioglitazone, permanent MCAO), but significantly reduced infarct volume relative to DMSO during transient MCAO (B; Mann Whitney U p<0.01; n=7 (DMSO, transient MCAO); n=7 (pioglitazone, transient MCAO). Bars represent S.E.M.