Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion
Objective: To induce focal cerebral ischemia via middle cerebral artery occlusion and measure the effects on infarct size, neurological function, neurogenesis, and angiogenesis, with and without VEGF treatment
This is a Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion protocol using rat as the model organism. The procedure involves 7 procedural steps, 1 equipment items, 2 materials. Extracted from a 2003 paper published in Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Model and subjects
rat • adult rat • unknown • adult • not specified
Study window
~1.5 hours hands-on
Core workflow
Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion • Reperfusion Period • VEGF Administration
Primary readouts
- Infarct size
- Neurological function/performance
- BrdU labeling in dentate gyrus and subventricular zone (neuroproliferative zones)
- vWF-immunoreactive vascular profiles (angiogenesis in striatal ischemic penumbra)
Key equipment and reagents
Use this page as an execution guide, then fall back to the source paper whenever you need exact exclusions, dosing details, or assay-specific caveats.
Confirm first
- Verify the animal model, intervention setup, and collection timepoints against the source paper.
- Check that every direct vendor link matches the exact specification your lab plans to run.
Use the page like this
- Work through the protocol steps in order and use the inline vendor chips only when you need to source or verify an item.
- Jump to Experimental Context for readouts, data shape, and analysis flow before planning downstream analysis.
Protocol Steps
Start here. The step list is optimized for running the experiment, with direct vendor links available inline when you need to source a cited item.
Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion
Induce focal cerebral ischemia by occluding the middle cerebral artery in adult rat brain
Note: This creates the stroke model for the experiment
View evidence from paper
“focal cerebral ischemia by middle cerebral artery occlusion for 90 minutes in the adult rat brain”
Reperfusion Period
Allow reperfusion to occur following the 90-minute occlusion period
Note: VEGF treatment administered during reperfusion phase
View evidence from paper
“intracerebroventricular administration of VEGF on days 1–3 of reperfusion”
VEGF Administration
Administer VEGF intracerebroventricularly to treatment group
Note: Treatment administered during early reperfusion phase
View evidence from paper
“intracerebroventricular administration of VEGF on days 1–3 of reperfusion”
BrdU Labeling
Apply BrdU labeling to identify and measure neuroproliferative zones
Note: Used to assess newborn neuron survival in dentate gyrus and subventricular zone
View evidence from paper
“BrdU labeling of neuroproliferative zones”
Vascular Profile Assessment
Measure vWF-immunoreactive vascular profiles to assess angiogenesis
Note: Assessed in striatal ischemic penumbra and dentate gyrus
View evidence from paper
“vWF-immunoreactive vascular profiles”
Infarct Size Measurement
Measure infarct size in brain tissue
Note: Primary outcome measure for neuroprotection
View evidence from paper
“measured infarct size, neurological function”
Neurological Function Assessment
Assess neurological performance of animals
Note: Behavioral outcome measure
View evidence from paper
“measured infarct size, neurological function”