Figure 2

(a + b + c). Hematoxylin-eosin stained paraffin-embedded coronal section of an immersion fixed brain from an embolized rat with a proximal middle cerebral artery occlusion (A). Arrows indicate the border of the infarct, constituting 47% of the volume of the right hemisphere. The borderline of infarction is not easily identified by differences of structure or colour intensity. Medium power magnification (B). The border between healthy and dead brain is more obvious (arrows). High power magnification (C) of the narrow penumbral zone. The border between healthy and live neurons now distinctively exposed (arrows). A rim of 'dark' neurons adjacent to the normal neurons is observed and deeper in the infarct the cell bodies have shrunken from the surrounding neuropil [33, 34].