Importantly, at 1 and 3 months post-stroke, there was no sign of delayed neurological deterioration in Smad1 cKO mice (S5B Fig), in agreement with the immunohistological analyses at 3 months post-tMCAO which revealed that astrogial reaction had largely subsided in the cortex in both cohorts, and only residual astroglial scarring was visible and confined to the striatal stroke core (Fig 2A). Here, SMAD1 is linked to stroke disorder.