Effectiveness of a new modified intraluminal suture for temporary middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats of various weight

• Published in: Journal of neuroscience methods 2008-08, Vol.173 (2), p.225-234
• Main Authors: Lourbopoulos, Athanasios, Karacostas, Dimitris, Artemis, Nikolaos, Milonas, Ioannis, Grigoriadis, Nikolaos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Body Weight; Brain Edema - etiology; Brain Edema - pathology; Brain Edema - physiopathology; Brain infarction; Brain Infarction - etiology; Brain Infarction - pathology; Brain Infarction - physiopathology; Brain Ischemia - etiology; Brain Ischemia - pathology; Brain Ischemia - physiopathology; Disease Models, Animal; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery - etiology; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery - pathology; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery - physiopathology; Male; Middle Cerebral Artery - physiopathology; Middle Cerebral Artery - surgery; Middle cerebral artery occlusion; Neurosurgical Procedures - instrumentation; Neurosurgical Procedures - methods; Rat; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Reproducibility of Results; Stroke; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage - etiology; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage - physiopathology; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage - prevention & control; Suture; Suture Techniques - instrumentation; Suture Techniques - standards; Suture Techniques - trends; Sutures - standards; Sutures - trends; Vascular Surgical Procedures - instrumentation; Vascular Surgical Procedures - methods
• ISSN: 0165-0270; 1872-678X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2008.06.018

Intraluminal temporary middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) is a common model of ischemic stroke in the rat with significant, suture and weight-dependent variability along with increased risk of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). Our purpose was to increase reproducibility and decrease SAH using a modification of the Koizumi suture. We compared a Koizumi 5/0 Ethilon poly- l-lysine-coated suture (s-2, group B) to an identical, uncoated one (s-1, group A) and the Belayev's 3/0 suture (s-3, group C), in the 2-h MCAO model in Wistar rats of varying weight (310–527 g). Assessment included successful infarction rates, the modified neurological stroke scale (mNSS), a modified Bederson's scale (mBS), the grid-walking test (GWT), infarction volume (with rostrocaudal subanalysis and analysis of cortical/striatal involvement) and hemispheric edema. The s-2 suture increased the successful MCAO from 61.1% and 66.6% (groups A and C) to 97.5% in group B and induced a more severe clinical stroke ( P < 0.05) irrespective of animal's weight, with no incidence of SAH. Infarction volume and ipsilateral hemispheric edema significantly ( P < 0.05) increased and well correlated with the mNSS ( P ≤ 0.005), the mBS ( P ≤ 0.01) and GWT outcomes. Our data suggest that the new modified suture induces a more reproducible ischemic stroke in Wistar rats for temporary-MCAO experiments, overcoming the variability of weight and the risk of SAH.