Neurological and behavioral outcomes of focal cerebral ischemia in rats. F Wahl, M Allix, M Plotkine and R G Boulu Stroke. 1992;23:267-272 doi: 10.1161/01.STR.23.2.267 Stroke is published by the American Heart Association, 7272 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX 75231 Copyright © 1992 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Print ISSN: 0039-2499. Online ISSN: 1524-4628
The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is located on the World Wide Web at: http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/23/2/267
Permissions: Requests for permissions to reproduce figures, tables, or portions of articles originally published in Stroke can be obtained via RightsLink, a service of the Copyright Clearance Center, not the Editorial Office. Once the online version of the published article for which permission is being requested is located, click Request Permissions in the middle column of the Web page under Services. Further information about this process is available in the Permissions and Rights Question and Answer document. Reprints: Information about reprints can be found online at: http://www.lww.com/reprints Subscriptions: Information about subscribing to Stroke is online at: http://stroke.ahajournals.org//subscriptions/
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267
Neurological and Behavioral Outcomes of Focal Cerebral Ischemia in Rats Florence Wahl, PharmD; Monique Allix, BS; Michel Plotkine, PhD; and Roger G. Boulu, PhD
Background and Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the neurobehavioral consequences of focal ischemia in rats. Methods: We induced permanent occlusion of the left middle cerebral artery in 14 SpragueDawley rats, and used 13 sham-operated rats as controls. During surgery, brain temperature and body temperature were kept at normothermia. Neurobehavioral studies (neurological examination, passive avoidance task, Y maze test, and modified open-field test) were carried out 4 days after ischemia before killing the rats to evaluate histological damage. Results: Ischemia induced large infarcts in the cortex (138.6±8.5 mm3) and caudate-putamen (48.8±2.6 mm3) and, compared with sham-operated rats, produced a dramatic neurological deficit (p50% indicated spontaneous alternation.20 Spontaneous exploratory behavior was studied with an open field test2122 on day 3 after surgery. The apparatus (90x70 cm), with 10x10 cm squares painted on its floor, was illuminated by a 60-W lamp placed 1 m above it. Four wooden parallelepipeds
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Wahl et al Neurobehavioral Outcome in Focal Ischemia
269
(12x7x5 cm) were placed symetrically in the center of the floor. Each rat was placed in a corner of the apparatus and observed for 6 minutes. The latency (time before leaving the start point), motility (number of squares crossed), number of visits to the objects (i.e., stops with sniffing and/or rearing), and number of rightings against the apparatus walls were noted. The rats were decapitated under ether anesthesia on day 4 after surgery, and their brains were rapidly removed and frozen in isopentane at -40°C. Coronal cryostat sections 30 /im thick were cut at 12 levels throughout the rostrocaudal extent of the brain, from 13.2 to 3.2 mm anterior to the interaural line.23 The sections were stained with cresyl violet, and areas of infarction were delineated and measured with an image analyzer (Imstar, Paris, France). Total infarct volume was determined by integrating the areas of infarction (with correction for edema) at each level and the distances between them. Edema was assessed as the ratio between the area of the right cerebral hemisphere and that of the left cerebral hemisphere at each coronal level. Results are expressed as mean±SEM. Differences between groups were evaluated using Student's t test. Spearman's test was used to calculate correlations. Results In the MCA-occluded rats total infarct volume was 187.4±9.8 mm3 and edema was 22.8±1.6%. Histological damage (Figure 1) occurred in both the cortex (138.6±8.5 mm3) and the caudate-putamen (48.8± 2.6 mm3). Ischemia induced lesions in the motor and sensorimotor frontoparietal cortex. The dorsolateral caudate-putamen was always infarcted, with maximal infarction being 8.7 mm from the interaural line (Figure 1). The MCA-occluded rats had a much lower global neurological score (12.8±0.5) than the sham-operated rats (21.7±0.7; df=75, f=10.384,/>
The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is located on the World Wide Web at: http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/23/2/267
Permissions: Requests for permissions to reproduce figures, tables, or portions of articles originally published in Stroke can be obtained via RightsLink, a service of the Copyright Clearance Center, not the Editorial Office. Once the online version of the published article for which permission is being requested is located, click Request Permissions in the middle column of the Web page under Services. Further information about this process is available in the Permissions and Rights Question and Answer document. Reprints: Information about reprints can be found online at: http://www.lww.com/reprints Subscriptions: Information about subscribing to Stroke is online at: http://stroke.ahajournals.org//subscriptions/
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267
Neurological and Behavioral Outcomes of Focal Cerebral Ischemia in Rats Florence Wahl, PharmD; Monique Allix, BS; Michel Plotkine, PhD; and Roger G. Boulu, PhD
Background and Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the neurobehavioral consequences of focal ischemia in rats. Methods: We induced permanent occlusion of the left middle cerebral artery in 14 SpragueDawley rats, and used 13 sham-operated rats as controls. During surgery, brain temperature and body temperature were kept at normothermia. Neurobehavioral studies (neurological examination, passive avoidance task, Y maze test, and modified open-field test) were carried out 4 days after ischemia before killing the rats to evaluate histological damage. Results: Ischemia induced large infarcts in the cortex (138.6±8.5 mm3) and caudate-putamen (48.8±2.6 mm3) and, compared with sham-operated rats, produced a dramatic neurological deficit (p50% indicated spontaneous alternation.20 Spontaneous exploratory behavior was studied with an open field test2122 on day 3 after surgery. The apparatus (90x70 cm), with 10x10 cm squares painted on its floor, was illuminated by a 60-W lamp placed 1 m above it. Four wooden parallelepipeds
Downloaded from http://stroke.ahajournals.org/ by guest on April 29, 2014
Wahl et al Neurobehavioral Outcome in Focal Ischemia
269
(12x7x5 cm) were placed symetrically in the center of the floor. Each rat was placed in a corner of the apparatus and observed for 6 minutes. The latency (time before leaving the start point), motility (number of squares crossed), number of visits to the objects (i.e., stops with sniffing and/or rearing), and number of rightings against the apparatus walls were noted. The rats were decapitated under ether anesthesia on day 4 after surgery, and their brains were rapidly removed and frozen in isopentane at -40°C. Coronal cryostat sections 30 /im thick were cut at 12 levels throughout the rostrocaudal extent of the brain, from 13.2 to 3.2 mm anterior to the interaural line.23 The sections were stained with cresyl violet, and areas of infarction were delineated and measured with an image analyzer (Imstar, Paris, France). Total infarct volume was determined by integrating the areas of infarction (with correction for edema) at each level and the distances between them. Edema was assessed as the ratio between the area of the right cerebral hemisphere and that of the left cerebral hemisphere at each coronal level. Results are expressed as mean±SEM. Differences between groups were evaluated using Student's t test. Spearman's test was used to calculate correlations. Results In the MCA-occluded rats total infarct volume was 187.4±9.8 mm3 and edema was 22.8±1.6%. Histological damage (Figure 1) occurred in both the cortex (138.6±8.5 mm3) and the caudate-putamen (48.8± 2.6 mm3). Ischemia induced lesions in the motor and sensorimotor frontoparietal cortex. The dorsolateral caudate-putamen was always infarcted, with maximal infarction being 8.7 mm from the interaural line (Figure 1). The MCA-occluded rats had a much lower global neurological score (12.8±0.5) than the sham-operated rats (21.7±0.7; df=75, f=10.384,/>
