ABSTRACT
Animal models of global cerebral ischemia are designed to replicate consequences of cardiac arrest and resuscitation in humans. As such, they typically involve short insult durations (min to tens of min) that are below the temporal threshold for overt brain infarction. Their relevance to the focal injury that occurs in stroke lies in elucidating intrinsic differences in regional-and cell type-specifi c vulnerability to ischemia. These models, therefore, provide insight into the continuum of injury that results following transient ischemic events, upon which consequences of longer insults will be superimposed. In this chapter, we will briefl y review the pathologies recognized to occur following global cerebral ischemia and consider in detail the optimal use of commonly accepted adult rodent models for their study.
