J Anesth Perioper Med. 2017;4(2):60-66. https://doi.org/10.24015/ebcmed.japm.2017.0015
From Department of Anesthesiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA.
Correspondence to Dr. Zhi-Yi Zuo at zz3c@virginia.edu.
EBCMED ID: ebcmed.japm.2017.0015 DOI: 10.24015/ebcmed.japm.2017.0015
Background
Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion potentially contributes to the initiation and progression of vascular dementia (VD). Bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (two- vessel occlusion) is the most commonly used animal model to replicate this pathological condition but with high mortality and severe histological cerebral damage. Unilateral common carotid artery occlusion (one-vessel occlusion) was introduced to simulate clinical conditions. Our study was designed to further characterize this model.
Methods
In this study, eight-week old CD-1 mice were subjected to left common carotid artery occlusion (LCCAO). Two weeks after the occlusion, their learning and memory were assessed by Barnes maze and fear conditioning. Histo-morphological changes were evaluated by Hematoxylin-Eosin staining. Neuronal and axonal degenerative changes were examined by amino-cupric sliver staining.
Results
LCCAO increased the time to find the target box in the Barnes maze test during the 4-day training sessions and one day after the training sessions compared with sham group mice. There was no difference in context-related or tone-related freezing behavior between these two groups. No significant histological neuronal cell damage or degeneration was observed in brain sections of hippocampus and corpus callosum in these two groups.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that LCCAO can be used to mimic the vascular dementia.
Article Type
Original Article
Declaration of Interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a grant (R01 GM098308 to Z Zuo) from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, the Robert M. Epstein Professorship endowment, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, and a grant (81641160) from National Natural Science Foundation of China, Beijing, China.
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