The development of a new mouse model of global ischemia: focus on the relationships between ischemia duration, anesthesia, cerebral vasculature, and neuronal injury following global ischemia in mice.

A new model for mouse global ischemia is presented, and the relationship of ischemia duration, cerebral vasculature, and ischemic neuronal injury has been determined. CD-1 mice anesthetized by chloral hydrate were subjected to global ischemia by bilateral common carotid artery occlusion under controlled ventilation for 3, 5, and 10 min. After evaluating the patency of the posterior communicating artery (PcomA) as hypoplastic or normoplastic, neuronal injury was independently determined in the striatum, cortex, and hippocampus in each hemisphere. Ischemic injury was strongly correlated with not only ischemia duration, but also with the patency of the PcomAs. Furthermore, neuronal injury developed in a delayed fashion after 3-min ischemia, while it was maximized at 24 h after 10-min ischemia. Physiological studies showed the induction of slight hypotension as compared with inhalation anesthesia, and improvement of blood gas data relative to spontaneous respiration. These data demonstrate the usefulness of this method to induce selective vulnerability and delayed neuronal cell death in mice, and to provide a useful model to study the detailed mechanism of global ischemia using transgenic or knockout mutant mice.