Stroke
See Table of Stains appropriate for Stroke
Overview
Animal models for stroke attempt to induce a cerebral ischemia to mimic the effects of a stroke in humans which tends to be more difficult to replicate in smaller rodents than in larger animals. Neurohistology for stroke research primarily focuses on methods to quantify the ischemic region and characterize the margin of surviving tissue.
Animal Models:
25 Mouse Brains Coronal Up to 25 mouse brains are 16 Rat Brains Coronal Up to 16 rat brains are Dog Brain Large brains such as a monkey,
co-embedded and appear on
each MultiBrain® slide section.
co-embedded and appear on
each MultiBrain® slide section.
sheep. and dog are processed
intact. If hemisected two
hemispheres are co-embedded
and appear on the same
MultiBrain® slide section.
Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) Breakdown
SMI-71 Endothelial Barrier Protein EBP
Rat-normal vessels
SMI-71 Endothelial Barrier Protein EBP Rat stroke
model reveals loss of EBP associated with
Blood Brain Barrier Compromise
Stroke Ischemia
Protective effects of interventions after stroke are ideally based on clinical neurologic outcomes and subsequent neurohistology. In small animal stroke models, difficulties with long survival times and neurologic evaluation prompt many investigators to perform acute studies and determine protection by histologic evaluations immediately after inducing an infarction. Many stains have been used to identify infarct areas, but it is not clear if these areas include or could delineate the penumbra, i.e., the potentially salvageable tissue at the margin of the infarct. The triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) method, for instance, is known to give variable infarct volumes depending on how long after the infarct the tissue is harvested. A fortuitous observation led to a staining method that delineates the penumbra and highlights the infarcted volume in sharp contrast, hence the Ischemia Contrast Stain (ICS). Normal tissue is dense black, infarcted areas fail to stain and gradations of gray identify the penumbra zone. Section images are digitized and, based on optical density, the volumes of the infarct, penumbra and normal brain are calculated. Adjacent sections stained with other methods including H&E, thionine and GFAP IHC display less definition of affected areas.
Ischemia Contrast Stain (ICS)
Appearance of stroke in popular animal models with decreasing severity
Gerbil: Ligation of Carotid Arteries
Rat: Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion
Image Analysis of Ischemic Area in Stroke Model
Gerbil brain section rendered ischemic from bilateral carotid ligation. The ischemia Contrast stain sharply delineates affected areas.
DATA: Area (sq. units)
Entire section 2.73
Area 1 0.02
Area 2 0.17
Area 3 0.11
% Ischemic area: 10.99%
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