Fig. 4.
Staircase test of skilled forelimb reaching ability. The percentage for each performance was determined by comparing an individual animal's presurgery training score with subsequent test scores. A, Reaching scores for the limb contralateral to the lesion are shown, indicating a sharp impairment after surgery (p < 0.01 compared with shams). After 4 weeks (Post 1) of exposure to their respective treatment conditions, IE animals showed a dramatic improvement compared with IS animals (p < 0.01), which persisted at 9 weeks after treatment (Post 2). B, Reaching scores for the ipsilateral forelimb show a slight but significant impairment at 10–15 d after ischemia (before treatment) and at 4 weeks after treatment in both IE and IS animals. Ipsilateral forelimb impairment had recovered to sham levels by 9 weeks of either treatment. Sham groups (SE and SS) were not significantly different at any time point and therefore were pooled for statistical analyses. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. * indicates different from sham; † indicates different from IS.