The wild-type (Uqcrc1+/+) and heterozygous (Uqcrc1+/−) mice were randomly assigned to the control and MCAO groups. The control group of mice was not subjected to anesthesia or surgical procedure. The OxiSelect™ In Vitro ROS/RNS Assay Kit (catalog number: STA-347, Cell Biolabs Inc., San Diego, CA) was chosen to detect ROS as we did before [59 (link)]. Briefly, the left frontal cortex area 1 (Fr1) at Bregma 1 to −1 was harvested 24 h after MCAO or from control mice. Tissue was homogenized on ice in cold phosphate-buffered saline (10 mg/100 μL), and centrifuged at 10,000 g for 5 min at 4°C. Fifty microliter supernatant was mixed with 50 μL catalyst in a well of 96-well plates and incubated at room temperature for 5 min. Subsequently, 2’, 7’-dichlorodihydrofluorescin diacetate solution (100 μL) was added to each well and was reacted for 45 min in the dark. Fluorescence at 486 nm excitation and 538 nm emission was read on a fluorescence plate reader (Gemini EM Microplate Reader, Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA). Measurements were performed in triplicate and then averaged as the value for each mouse.