Fig. 5: Reactive astrocytes and proliferating OPCs are CD44 positive and abundant in the perilesional zone 48 h after permanent MCAO in rats.

a Overview of a representative coronal rat brain section 48 h post middle cerebral artery occlusion MCAO, stained for GFAP, CD44 and VIM. Grey matter ROIs (GM) are highlighted in violet, white matter ROIs (WM) in lime green, lower right inset depicts a corresponding T2 weighted MRI image from the same animal. Bar = 2 mm. b Representative images taken from GM and WM ROIs of Sham, MCAO contra and MCAO ipsi sections, split by antigen. VIM = magenta, GFAP = Cyan, CD44 = yellow, all overlaid with DAPI (nuclei) = blue. Bars = 50 µm. MCAO ipsi MCAO group, hemisphere ipsilateral to ischemic lesion, MCAO contra MCAO group, hemisphere contralateral to ischemic lesion. c–f Cell counts within GM (c) and WM (d) are presented as box plots for GFAP⁺/CD44⁺/VIM⁺ triple positive cells. Cell counts for GFAP⁺/CD44⁺/VIM⁺, GFAP⁺/CD44^-/VIM⁺, GFAP⁺/CD44⁺/VIM^-, GFAP⁺/CD44^-/VIM^- are jointly shown as colored stacked bar plots, for GM (e) and WM (f) ROIs. g Representative coronal overview, 48 h post MCAO, stained for NG2, CD44, Ki67. GM ROIs in violet, WM ROIs in lime green, lower right inset shows corresponding MRI image from the same animal. Bar = 2 mm. h Representative images from GM and WM ROIs taken from Sham, MCAO contra and MCAO ipsi groups, split by antigen. Ki67 = magenta, NG2 = Cyan, CD44 = yellow. Bars = 50 µm. White arrowheads point to NG2⁺/CD44⁺/Ki67⁺ triple positive cells. i–l Cell counts within GM (i) and WM (j), respectively are presented as box plots for NG2⁺/CD44⁺/Ki67⁺. Cell counts for NG2⁺/CD44⁺/Ki67⁺, NG2⁺/CD44^-/Ki67⁺, NG2⁺/CD44⁺/Ki67^-, NG2⁺/CD44^-/Ki67^- are also jointly shown as colored stacked bar plots, for GM (k) and WM (l) ROIs. Data derived from n = 4 Sham control and n = 5 MCAO group animals, p values derived from Kruskal–Wallis-H-Tests, followed by Dunn’s post hoc comparisons. All box plots depict medians, 25th to 75th percentiles as hinges, minimal and maximal values as whiskers, and individual counts, for each animal as dots. Statistical comparison of all subsets within all ROIs is reported in Supplementary Data 7. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.