Fig. 8: Transient induction of NANOG in brain regions undergoing neurogenesis in response to ischemic insult.

Ischemic insult in mice was induced by ligation of the right common carotid artery and exposure to a hypoxic chamber. The spatial distribution of NANOG-expressing cells in mouse brains near the infarct area was examined along with sham-operated mice 24, 48, and 72 h after ischemic insult. a Images of immunofluorescence staining of the brain 48 h after hypoxic insult (HI) or sham operation. High-magnitude images of NANOG-expressing cells are displayed in inlets. b The numbers of NANOG-expressing cells were counted in each indicated region on day 24, 48 and 72 h after ischemic insult. The numbers of NANOG (−) cells, with upper and lower margins of the boxes representing 75 and 25% of the value, with horizontal bars representing the mean values (n = 8 and 4 for control and HI, respectively, for SVZ and SGZ regions, n = 8 and 16 for control and HI, respectively, for CTX and MS regions) are shown. Scale bar = 20 μm. c Proliferative activity of NANOG-expressing neuronal cells. The brain regions were costained for PCNA and NANOG in an analysis of the proliferation of NANOG-expressing cells. The percentage (%) of proliferating (PCNA⁺) cells among the NANOG-expressing cell population in mouse brains exposed to ischemic insult compared to the corresponding brain regions in sham-operated mice (n = 12 for SVZ, n = 11 for CTX, *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001). Scale bar = 20 μm. SVZ subventricular zone, SGZ subgranular zone, CTX cerebral cortex, MS medial septum.