For quantitative analysis of the cresyl violet stained sections, images of whole hemisphere were acquired using a 1.25× objective lens with a CCD camera. Injured areal size in eight serial sections with 0.5 mm intervals was determined with a MCID computerized image analyzer (Imaging Research, Cambridge, UK) and the injured volume was calculated by summing the areal size. For counting Iba1, NE, Isolectin B4, or Fluoro-Jade B positive cells, images that covered the entire hemisphere were acquired with an epifluorence microscope (Carl Zeiss Axioskop 2) under the same exposure condition. The number of positive cells in each of eight sections was automatically determined with the computer assisted MCID image analyzer and integrated to obtain total positive cell number.
