Fig. 2

Characterization of mural cells in brain specimens. Antibody staining for calponin, neuron-glia antigen 2 (NG2), alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA), desmin (green), UEAI (red), and nuclei staining with DAPI (blue) in a SWS brain and b non-SWS brain. Scale bar = 50 µm. White arrows point at vessels without mural cells, whereas arrowheads point to vessels with mural cell coverage. c Quantification of vessel circumference (µm) in SWS brain (n = 4) and non-SWS brain (n = 2). ‘+’ (green) indicates the vessels surrounded by mural cells, and ‘−’ (black) indicates the vessels that lack mural cell coverage. The p-values were calculated by a two-tailed, non-parametric Mann–Whitney test