2.5. Measurement of infarct volume

To measure the infarct volume, the mouse brains were stained with 2% 2,3,5‐triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC, Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA) 1 d and 3 d after MCAO. The brains were continuously sliced into six coronal (1‐mm thick) and were then immersed in TTC solution in the dark at 37℃ for 15 min. The slices were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde, photographed, and analyzed with ImageJ software (ImageJ 1.5, NIH, USA). After correcting for edema, we calculated the infarct volume as a percentage of the total brain volume.