Neurogenesis persists in the adult mammalian brain and can be regulated by physiological and pathological events, including stroke.Stroke is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, yet no effective therapy is currently available to promote recovery following ischemic stroke.To date, spontaneous endogenous neurogenesis has been observed in the rostral subventricular zone (SVZ) of the lateral ventricles and the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the dentate gyrus (DG) after ischemic injury, although the exact mechanisms remain poorly understood.It is well known that canonical Wnt signaling plays a crucial role in embryonic development.Recent studies provide evidence that Wnt signalling enhances neurogenesis from the adult CNS.In order to investigate its possible involvement in ischemia-induced adult neurogenesis, we studied the expression of Wnt ligands in hippocampus, using a model of focal cerebral ischemia in adult rats.Using real-time PCR, we found that the expression of Wnt7b mRNA was significantly increased with the similar time course as cell proliferation in the DG of hippocampus.And immunohistochemistry detection showed that Wnt7b was expressed in close proximity to the SGZ of DG.To investigate the role of Wnt7b in ischemia-induced adult neurogenesis, recombinant protein Wnt7b was stereotactically injected into the DG at day 7 after ischemia.Rats were killed at 24 h after injection.Proliferating cells were labeled with 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine-5-monophosphate (BrdU).We found that Wnt7b dramatically increased the BrdU labeling in the SGZ.Therefore,Wnt7b is involved in ischemia-induced adult neurogenesis in hippocampus of rats.This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 81171106), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province,China (Grant 2009ZRB01125), the National Science Foundation for Post-doctoral Scientists of China (Grant 20110491578), Innovation Foundation for Post-doctoral Scientists of S handong Province, China (Grant 201102016).