An important observation made during the in-life portion of the filament MCAO study which may be predictive of mortality risk and severity of post-stroke physical disability was the acute loss of body mass for animals of the control group that occurred within 24 h (− 11.39 ± 0.72%) post-stroke and which peaked from PSD3-PSD5 (− 22.0–22.5% ± 2.84). Here, PSD3 is linked to Stroke.