Histological and immunofluorescent assessment
Animals were anesthetized with 10% chloral hydrate 14 or 28 days after MCAO. Rat brains were fixed by transcardial perfusion with saline, followed by perfusion and immersion in 4% paraformaldehyde, and embedded in optimal cutting temperature compound. A series of adjacent 5 µm-thick cryosections were cut from each block in the coronal plane. Immunofluorescent staining was used to identify cells derived from C17.2 NSCs. To visualize the cellular colocalization of Cell Tracker CM-DiI and cell type specific markers in the same cells, CY5 and FITC were used for double-label immunoreactivity. Each coronal section was treated with cell type-specific antibodies: a neuronal nuclear antigen (NeuN for neurons; dilution in 1:200; Abcam); an astrocytic marker, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP; dilution in 1:100; Santa Cruz); a neural stem cell marker nestin (dilution in 1:1000; Abcam); a thymidine analogue BrdU (dilution in 1:1000; Abcam). Negative control sections from each animal received identical preparations for immunofluorescent staining, except that primary antibodies were omitted.