GFAP and ischemia: While focusing on the ischemic border zone (middle part of Fig 12A and 12A’), which became clearly demarcated by the ischemia-associated activation and up-regulation of STL-stained microglia/macrophages and endothelial structures, respectively (Fig 12A”), the VEGF-staining appeared most prominent in GFAP-immunopositive astroglia.