Figure 3.

Staircase reaching test. The mean number of pellets eaten from the staircase below the impaired limb is shown. Because rats were able to lick pellets from the top two steps, reaching scores only included the bottom five steps of the staircase. All ischemic groups were severely impaired on days 3 and 4 after ischemia (before treatment; p < 0.001) relative to controls. Although there was no difference between ischemic groups before treatment or after 14 d of respective treatment (p > 0.05), ER5 animals were able to retrieve more pellets than socially housed animals after 35 d of treatment (p < 0.05). ER5 animals also showed a strong trend for improvement relative to ER30 animals (p = 0.07). ER5, n = 8; ER14, n = 7; ER30, n = 7; social housing, n = 6; controls, n = 9. *p < 0.05 different from all other groups; ^†p < 0.05 different from social housing.