Fig. 1.

Time course of lesion expansion, neurological outcome, and regulation of inflammatory marker genes after MCAO. a The infarct volume increased over time with a peak of 58 ± 5% at 72 h (^***p < 0.001 vs. sham). The lesion enlarged about 37 ± 8% at 3 h (p = ns vs. sham) to 53 ± 6% at 24 h (^**p < 0.01 vs. sham) and declined at 120 h (50 ± 5%; ^*p < 0.05 vs. sham). b The sensoric and reflex ability evaluated by the modified neurological severity score restored at 120 h after a decrease in impairment from 3 to 24 h (3 h, 5 ± 1.4 points, ^*p < 0.05 vs. sham; 24 h, 4 ± 1.6 points, ^*p < 0.05 vs. sham). TNFα and IL-1β as inflammatory marker genes were time-dependent regulated. c TNFα reached a peak at 72 h with a 261-fold increase compared to sham in tissue samples of peri-ischemic zone (^***p < 0.001 vs. sham). d IL-1β peaked at 24 h with a 38-fold increase (^***p < 0.001 vs. sham). Data are shown as mean ± SEM (n = 6 per group; sham: n = 8). Descriptive p values are assigned as follows: ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001