Fig. 1.

Experimental animal protocol. Hyperglycemia will be induced 72 h before surgery. The rats will then undergo a IS through permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion or sham surgery. Insulin treatment will be intravenously or subcutaneously administered 4 h after IS induction and up to 96 h later, after which the blood glucose levels will be continuously monitored. A functional evaluation will be performed at 24 h, 1 week and 4 weeks post-stroke. Peripheral blood will be extracted 24 h, 72 h and 4 weeks after the stroke. The MRI will be analyzed at 24 h and 4 weeks post-stroke. Four weeks after the stroke, the animals will be euthanized, and histological analyses will be performed