Fig. 1

Sympathetic denervation of the spleen reduces brain injury after ischemia‒reperfusion. A Spleen images of the sham and tMCAO models during the early (day 1) and late (day 7) stages. The scale bar represents 1 cm. B Spleen volume in the sham and tMCAO models during the early (day 1) and late (day 7) stages. n = 6/group. C Spleen weight in the sham and tMCAO models during the early (day 1) and late (day 7) stages. n = 6/group. D ELISA-based measurement of splenic norepinephrine (NE) levels at 24 h post tMCAO. n = 6/group. E Schematic illustration of the splenic sympathetic denervation (SDN) experiment. F Representative images of spleen sections from sham-operated or denervated mice 1 week after surgery. Green, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) staining; blue, DAPI. Scale bar = 50 μm. G. NE concentrations in splenic tissue from sham-operated and denervated mice. n = 7/group. H Schematic of tMCAO, infarction examination, and behavioral tests in SDN mice. I Representative T2-weighted MR images of the tMCAO (sham) and tMCAO (SDN) groups 1 day after tMCAO, followed by analysis of the infarct volume. The dashed line denotes the infarct area. n = 5 in the tMCAO (Sham) group, n = 4 in the tMCAO (SDN) group. Functional recovery in SDN mice was assessed by the grid walking test (J), cylinder test (K), and adhesive removal test (L) at baseline and on days 4 and 7 after tMCAO. n = 6/group. The data are presented as the means ± SEMs. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; ^#P < 0.05^{; ##}P < 0.01; ^###P < 0.001