Post-operative mortality is generally high in 6-OHDA mice models, and animals can suffer from a variety of complications (Table S3 ) [11 ,25 (link)]. However, this can be overcome by continuous health assessment and intensive post-operative care after lesion surgery. Thus, health status of each animal was assessed during the first 14 days post-surgery, and mice that reached the human endpoints [56 (link)] were euthanized. During the recovery, animals were housed in a warmed room and post-operative care was performed twice a day.
Following surgery, animals received 0.1 mg/kg injections of buprenorphine (i.p.) every 6 h for 5 days to avoid pain, and 5 mg/kg carprofen subcutaneously (s.c.) every 24 h for 3 days. Animals received 1 mL injections (s.c.) of sterile and warm saline twice daily to mitigate dehydration, and if needed, they were fed by hand with providing Nutri-plus Gel (Virbac, Nice, France) into the mouth via 1 mL syringe. Until the animals got used to the energy supplement, s.c. injections of 1 mg/kg/day Duphalyte (Zoetis, Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ, USA) were also administered. Mice were weighed every day in the first week post-surgery, and then once a week until the end of the experiment (Figure S5 ). The mortality rate of mice in the 6-OHDA group was 25.7% (9 animals were lost during the experiment).
Following surgery, animals received 0.1 mg/kg injections of buprenorphine (i.p.) every 6 h for 5 days to avoid pain, and 5 mg/kg carprofen subcutaneously (s.c.) every 24 h for 3 days. Animals received 1 mL injections (s.c.) of sterile and warm saline twice daily to mitigate dehydration, and if needed, they were fed by hand with providing Nutri-plus Gel (Virbac, Nice, France) into the mouth via 1 mL syringe. Until the animals got used to the energy supplement, s.c. injections of 1 mg/kg/day Duphalyte (Zoetis, Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ, USA) were also administered. Mice were weighed every day in the first week post-surgery, and then once a week until the end of the experiment (