Selection process of the animals for the treatment inclusion.

<p>Animals were selected according to the outcome from the MCAO surgery (only subcortical vs. cortico-subcortical lesions) and the fMRI study performed at week 3 (regained vs. non-regained BOLD activation). Finally the remaining animals were randomly asigned to a control and a stem cell-treated group. Gray boxes indicate animals excluded from further procedures at each time point, while white boxes indicate the animals selected for successive stages of the study.</p

Quantitative analysis of electrophysiologic data during recovery.

<p><i>Top row</i>, Amplitude (in µV) of the somatosensory evoked potentials detected over the S1_FL cortical area of the brain, acquired during the fMRI sessions. <i>Bottom row</i>, result of the sticky tape behavioral test. Time to contact the tape stuck to the forepaws of the animals is presented (mean ± standard deviation, in seconds). As in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0012779#pone-0012779-g004" target="_blank">Fig. 4</a>, the plots present the data for the control group (white bars), and for the group of animals treated with stem cells that recovered BOLD signal (dark gray bars).</p

Localization of labeled cells by T2*-weighted MRI.

<p>3D high resolution T2*-weighted MR images, pre- (1st column) and post- (2nd column) implantation of USPIO-labeled stem cells, showing the successful implantation of the cells into the brain parenchyma. Corresponding T2-weighted images (3^rd column) confirm that cells were implanted in healthy tissue.</p

Functional brain recovery during six months observation.

<p>BOLD images obtained during the 24 weeks exploration period for two control animals (top rows), presenting a permanent loss of BOLD signal on the affected right hemisphere, and the two stem cell implanted animals (bottom rows) that regained BOLD activity at the affected hemisphere starting from week 10.</p

Quantitative analysis of fMRI data during recovery.

<p><i>Top row</i>, percent change of signal intensity (BOLD effect) during stimulation of the forepaw (mean value ± standard deviation) for the healthy (left plot) and affected (right plot) hemispheres of the brain, for the control group (white bars), and for the two animals treated with stem cells that regained BOLD signal in the affected hemisphere (dark gray bars). <i>Bottom row</i>, activated volume (in mm³) in the primary somatosensory cortex in the healthy (left) and affected (right) hemispheres.</p