Figure 5.

Astrocyte reactivity and morphology. (a) Astrocyte reactivity time-course on coronal brain sections from WT and Cav-1 KO mice stained with GFAP and MAP-2. Sections were collected from sham animals and 6 h, one and three days after tMCAO. Scale bar = 1 mm (b) Immunofluorescence staining with proliferating cells-marker Ki67 (green), reactive astrocytes marker GFAP (red) and DAPI nuclear counterstaining (blue) in the striatum ipsilateral to the lesion in the WT (top image) and in the Cav-1 KO (bottom image). Scale bar = 20 µm (c) High magnification (40×) panels from sections obtained at 3 dpi illustrating GFAP-positive reactive astrocytes (astrocytes white on black background) in the striatal peri-lesion in WT (top image) and Cav-1 KO (bottom image). Scale bar = 20 µm. Inserts with zoom on a single astrocyte from each group. (d) Analysis of astrocyte number and astrocytic morphology by skeletonization: plot of the number of GFAP-positive cells, number of endpoints, total length of the segment and the maximum branch length in WT and Cav-1 KO astrocytes in the peri-lesion. n = 4 areas per animal with three animals per group.