FULL PAPER Laboratory Animal Science Comparison of Surgical Methods of Transient Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion between Rats and Mice

ABSTRACT. Rodent models of focal cerebral ischemia that do not require craniotomy have been developed by intraluminal suture middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo). Mouse MCAo models have been widely used and extended to genetic studies of cell death or recovery mechanisms. Therefore, we compared surgery-related parameters and techniques between such rats and mice. In rodent MCAo models, has to be considered body temperature during the operative period, as well as the need for the use of a standardized tip in terms of the outer diameter of probes. Induction of focal cerebral ischemia was measured by neurological dysfunction parameters. Our methods could induce stable moderate-severity ischemic brain injury models and histological alteration at 24 hr after MCAo surgery. Moreover approximately 80 % (rats) and 85 % (mice) survival ratios were shown indicating with model engineering success. Finally, we described and compared major parameters between rats and mice, including probe size, thread insert length, operation and occlusion periods, and differences in the procedures. KEY WORDS: focal cerebral ischemia, microsurgical procedure, rodent MCAo model doi: 10.1292/jvms.14-0258; J. Vet. Med. Sci. 76(12): 1555–1561, 2014 Cerebral ischemia-related research has been extensively used rodents with various methods, including vessel oc-clusion, hypotension and hypovolemia [4, 14]. In order to investigate the mechanisms underlying the injury after isch