神经生物学

The photochemical stroke model has a number of advantages: size and location can be exactly determined, the skull need not be opened for photothrombotic stroke, the model works in rats and mice, and technical variations allow for the induction of subcortical stroke, stroke in newborn animals, or ...

This chapter covers established rodent models of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), where ischemia is induced by electrocoagulation of the artery, occluding devices applied to the artery, or application of the peptide endothelin-1 to the artery to induce vasospasm. Electroco ...

Filamentous occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) is probably the most frequently used model in experimental stroke research. It results in reproducible lesions in the cortex and striatum and can be used to induce both permanent and transient MCAO. It allows for the study of both acute st ...

The chapter provides an introduction and overview on the most widely used rodent models of focal cerebral ischemia, pointing out the major characteristics of the respective model and the basic differences between models. The specific models will be discussed in detail throughout the fol ...

Stroke is a complex and heterogeneous disease. Although animal models have provided valuable insight into its pathophysiology, the knowledge gained from animal experiments has not been fully transferred into clinical practice. Clinical trials testing for neuroprotective dr ...

Translating neuroprotective efficacy from animal studies to clinical trials in humans has been fraught with difficulty. This failure might be because animal studies were falsely positive or clinical trials were falsely negative. Here, I focus on the measures to improve the design, cond ...

The quest for internal and external validity in experimental stroke research is fraught with pitfalls and confounders. This article, written as a checklist from the perspective of an editor and reviewer of articles on rodent stroke models and an active bench side stroke researcher, presen ...

Experimental stroke researchers take samples from populations (e.g., certain mouse strains), and make inferences about unknown parameters (e.g., infarct sizes, outcomes). They use statistics to describe their data, and they seek formal ways to decide whether their hypotheses are true ( ...

Recently, systematic reviews have found quantitative evidence that low study quality may have introduced a bias into preclinical stroke research. Monitoring, auditing, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) are already key elements of quality control in randomized clinical ...

Animal models of cerebral ischemia have deepened our insight into the pathophysiology of ischemic brain damage. Success rates in translation to the bedside, however, are low. This fact entails unmet hopes for patients and ineffective deployment of money and time. It also highlights the imp ...

While there are many and in part very different staining protocols for determining and calculating infarct volumes after experimental stroke in rodents, this plethora can ultimately be reduced to a few basic methods, such as histological staining, contrast-enhanced staining, immu ...

The critical test of a therapeutic intervention is whether it affects clinically relevant outcomes. Reliable tests of functional outcome, therefore, represent a vital part of preclinical stroke research. This chapter presents select behavioral tests commonly used for evaluati ...

For decades, histological assessments were the only end-point in stroke research, typically using lesion size determination to evaluate the potential therapeutic effectiveness of an agent in in vivo stroke models. While this approach is indeed valid, failures in developing effect ...

Many investigators have examined or are examining the effects of focal and global cerebral ischemia on brain physiology, chemistry, and molecular aspects and function. Many animal and cellular models are utilized for these types of studies. However, anesthetics must be used for the in vivo s ...

Non-invasive imaging technologies play a substantial role in the evaluation of physiological and pathophysiological processes. They are indispensable in biomedical research and in the clinic. In the past decade, designated small animal imaging scanners have become available f ...

Acute brain damage after stroke produces remarkable changes in the brain that can be visualized with a variety of neuroimaging techniques. Some of these techniques are used in patients for diagnostic purposes and are now available to image the rodent brain. However, noninvasive imaging of t ...

The incidence of cancer pain is high in patients with advanced disease as well as in patients undergoing active treatment for solid tumors. Further, modern cancer therapies have significantly increased survival rates, making effective pain control critical as unrelieved pain signi ...

Central neuropathic pain is triggered by trauma, neurological disease, or infection of the central nervous system. A number of powerful models of central pain produce consistent phenotypes of behavioral hypersensitivity and provide an understanding into the mechanisms underl ...

In this chapter, we describe a newly developed rodent model of chemogenic pain involving the inflammation of one or two lumbar sensory ganglia using the immune activator, zymosan. Using this model, we have investigated cellular, molecular, and ionic mechanisms of inflammatory responses ...

Injury to dorsal root ganglion and/or the dorsal roots can lead to neuropathic pain. This chapter provides an overview of animal models that mimic ganglion compression by the implantation of a metal rod in the lumbar intervertebral foramen (CCD model) and dorsal root injury by loose ligation of t ...