ABSTRACT
Animal experiments to produce neurological symptoms and signs of stroke have now been performed for about a half century. Different animals have been used in stroke models, including mice, rats, cats, rabbits, swine, dogs, and monkeys, but the rat is the most commonly used species. Middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) is accepted for modeling focal ischemic stroke due to its relevance to human stroke. The techniques of MCAO models include local direct occlusion of the distal middle cerebral artery (MCA) through a craniectomy, by photochemically induced thrombus formation, or by indirect occlusion of the proximal MCA from the internal carotid artery, including intraluminal suture emplacement and embolic cerebral ischemia. The distribution of clot material is different from human stroke, for which the proximal segment is occluded, but the distal branches remain open. Thromboembolic stroke in rats was first described in 1982 by M. Kudo et al. and in 1985 by D. Kaneko et al.
