VEGF-C prophylaxis mitigates microglia activation and stimulates neurotrophin signaling. (A–D) qPCR analysis of forebrain homogenates (ipsilateral hemisphere) in AAV-VEGF-C and AAV-CTRL mice at 3 d- and 7 d-pso, measuring mRNA expression of the indicated genes. **P < 0.001; *P < 0.05. Two-way ANOVA and Sidak’s multiple comparison test. Data are represented as mean ± SEM, n = 3–5 mice in each experimental group. (E) Western blot and quantification of CXCL9 protein levels in brain protein extracts from AAV-CTRL– and AAV-VEGF-C–injected mice. *P < 0.05; n = 4 animals/group; Mann-Whitney test. (F) qPCR analysis of forebrain homogenates described in A–D for measuring mRNA expression of Bdnf and Ngf. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. (G) ELISA on brain tissue extracts to measure the expression of BDNF and NGF in tMCAO mouse brains at 3 d-pso (*P < 0.05, n = 4–5 animals/group; Mann–Whitney test). (H) Immunoprecipitation of TrkB, followed by western blot detection of phosphorylated tyrosine, and quantification of pTrK phosphorylation. Each lane corresponds to one brain hemisphere (*P <0.05; n = 4–5 animals/group; Mann-Whitney test). Source data are available for this figure: SourceData F8.