Transfemoral Approach to Induce Transient Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion in Rats: The Use of Commercially Available Endovascular Wires

Authors

Afshin A. Divani, Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, MMC 295, 420 Delaware Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA; Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USAFollow
Tracy D. Farr, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Mario Di Napoli, Department of Neurology, San Camillo de' Lellis District General Hospital, Rieti, Italy
Pascal Salazar, Vital Images, Minnetonka, MN, USA
Karen S. SantaCruz, Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Alibay Jafarli, Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, MMC 295, 420 Delaware Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
Mostafa Jafari, Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, MMC 295, 420 Delaware Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA
Marc Fisher, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2020

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Animal models of stroke play a crucial role in determining the pathophysiology of stroke progression and assessment of any new therapeutic approaches. Transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAo) in rodent models are the most common site-specific type of ischemia because of their relevance to the clinical setting. Compared with the intraluminal filament technique for inducing tMCAo, the transfemoral approach using endovascular wires is relatively a new technique METHODS: Here we present the use of commercially available wires used for neuro-endovascular surgical procedures to induce tMCAo in rats via a transfemoral approach. We used male Wistar rats in four groups to assess the effect of occlusion time (1 vs. 2 hours) and the wire type (PT2 TM 0.014″ vs. TransendTM EX, 0.014″, Boston Scientific, MA, USA). Infarct volume, edema, neurological deficits, and pro-inflammatory/anti-inflammatory blood biomarkers were used as outcome measures.

RESULTS: We observed a significant effect of the wire type on the infarct volume (p value = 0.0096) where infarcts were slightly larger in the PT2 wiregroups. However, the occlusion time had no significant effect on infarct volume, even though the interaction between wire-type * occlusion-time was significant (p value = 0.024). Also, the amount of edema and blood pro-inflammatory/anti-inflammatory biomarkers were not statistically different among the wire-type and occlusion-time groups.

CONCLUSIONS: The choice of appropriate endovascular wire should probably be the focus of the study design instead of the occlusion time when planning an experiment. The transfemoral approach using endovascular wires for inducing tMCAo in rats provides a more consistent outcome with fewer complications compared with suture filament models.

Recommended Citation

Divani AA, Farr TD, Di Napoli M, Salazar P, SantaCruz KS, Jafarli A, Jafari M, Fisher M. Transfemoral Approach to Induce Transient Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion in Rats: The Use of Commercially Available Endovascular Wires. Neurocrit Care. 2020 Apr;32(2):575-585. doi: 10.1007/s12028-019-00791-8. PMID: 31346935.