CEREBRAL-ISCHEMIA AFTER BILATERAL CAROTID-ARTERY OCCLUSION AND INTRALUMINAL SUTURE OCCLUSION IN MICE - EVALUATION OF THE PATENCY OF THE POSTERIOR COMMUNICATING ARTERY

Cerebral ischemia models using mice have drawn increasing attention, p articularly because of the availability of transgenic animals. However , the variability of intracranial vasculature at the circle of Willis in mice can influence the degree of ischemia in both the bilateral com mon carotid artery (CCA) occlusion and intraluminal suture occlusion m odels. We have developed a method to predict the extent of the anastom osis between carotid and vertebrobasilar circulation in three mouse st rains (C57BL/6, CBA, and DBA/2) by measuring cortical microperfusion w ith laser Doppler flowmetry during a 1-minute occlusion of both CCA. W hen animals showed residual cortical microperfusion of less than 12% d uring bilateral CCA occlusion, the mice showed absence of functional a nastomosis, developed ATP depletion in the frontal cortex during occlu sion, and had ischemic neuronal death in the hippocampus and caudoputa men after occlusion for 15 minutes and recirculation for 7 days. Furth ermore, those mice exhibited decreased local cerebral blood flow and a ssociated ischemic neuronal death in the hippocampus, within the terri tory supplied by the posterior cerebral artery, with the intraluminal suture occlusion model. The current study demonstrates the need for as sessment of intracranial vasculature in each animal by measuring corti cal microperfusion during temporary occlusion of both CCA, no matter w hether cerebral ischemia is produced by bilateral CCA occlusion or int raluminal suture occlusion in transgenic mice.