Mechanical Injury Models: Balloon Catheter Injury to Rat Common Carotid Artery

Removal of arterial endothelium and damage to medial smooth muscle with a balloon embolectomy catheter lead to formation of a thin mural thrombus, platelet adhesion and degranulation, smooth muscle cell migration to the intima, and cell proliferation and matrix synthesis, ultimately producing a thickened neointimal layer. This model was developed initially by Baumgartner and Studer in the 1960s (1 ) and was modified (2 ) and used extensively throughout the 1970s and 1980s to develop our knowledge of vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cell kinetics following injury in adult animals (3 ). In the 1980s and 1990s it was used extensively to explore the effects of pharmacological agents that might influence vascular smooth muscle cell growth (4 -7 ).