Figure 1: Evolution of focal cerebral ischemia after pMCAO in rats pre-treated with vehicle (PBS) or statins (20 mg·kg-1 simvastatin or 10 mg·kg-1 atorvastatin daily for 14 days). A, Representative images of coronal brain sections pretreated with vehicle or statins, and taken after 12 h of pMCAO. B, Quantitative changes in infarct volume measured at different times of pMCAO and showing the effects of pre-treatment with vehicle (closed bars), simvastatin (gray bars) or atorvastatin (open bars).The percentage of infarct volume at each time is normalized versus the infarct volume (100%) measured after 3 h of untreated ischemia. All values are mean ± SEM of n=6. *P<0.05 vs. vehicle-pre-treated group, +P<0.05 vs. vehicle-pre-treated group after 3 h of pMCAO.