SENSORIMOTOR IMPAIRMENTS IN WISTAR-KYOTO RATS WITH CEREBRAL INFARCTION, INDUCED BY UNILATERAL OCCLUSION OF THE MIDDLE CEREBRAL-ARTERY - RECOVERY OF FUNCTION

Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats with cerebral infarction induced by permanent unilateral occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) and sham-oper ated rats were tested in a series of simple behavioral tests 2, 16 and 37 days after surgery. In addition, the motility of the animals was m easured over a period of 62 h, after the third test series, A subset o f the: tests appeared to be suitable to assess the effects of cerebral infarction, namely, grasping reflex of contralateral hindpaw, circlin g behavior, forelimb flexion, hindlimb flexion, and latency to fall of f a square bridge. Except for the impaired grasping reflex of the cont ralateral hindpaw, there was spontaneous complete recovery of function by the third test session, 37 days after surgery. Some of the other t ests might not have been sensitive enough to detect the effects of the unilateral MCA-occlusion (MCA-O) on behavior. Moreover, the WKY rats were very inactive in some of the tests, so that reliable scoring of t he effects was not always possible. A rat strain other than the WKY st rain might be more suitable to study the behavioral consequences of MC A-O.