Translational realistic expectations of chronic cerebral hypoxemia in rat model after bilateral commom carotid artery ligation. Neurocognitive aspects

Abstract

PURPOSE:To evaluate the effects of chronic cerebral hypoxia on memory of rats submitted to bilateral common carotid artery ligation (BCCL). METHODS:Every each week, for 16 weeks, 31 rats were tested for memory using a water and land mazes and compared with 30 normal rats (control group A). The variables were expressed by their mean and standard error of the mean (SEM). p<0.05 was used for rejecting the null hypothesis. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee for animal investigation. RESULTS:There was a significant increase in the latency time, in the survival water and land mazes, after four weeks (study group B) follow-up. However, without any medication or therapeutically induced measures, after 16 weeks (study group C) follow-up the latency mean times tend to be similar to control group (A) in the neurocognitive tests. CONCLUSIONS:Neurocognitive deficits after 16 weeks post-operative follow-up of rats that underwent bilateral common carotid artery ligation is a natural adaptive phenomenon. Thus, is not realistic to allow translational information from this animal model for therapeutically approaches aiming at to prevent, or to improve brain damage in human beings suffering from chronic deprivation of adequate blood supply.

Effects of Carotid Endarterectomy on Cerebral Reperfusion and Cognitive Function in Patients with High Grade Carotid Stenosis: A Perfusion Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

“…A previous study reported that chronic ischemia caused by bilateral carotid artery ligation significantly decreased the cognitive function of rats. 36 Whitten et al 37 also reported that patients with 75% or greater stenosis of the ICA had significantly greater improvement in memory and mental abilities after CEA. Therefore, the improved cerebral perfusion was predicted as the reason for cognitive improvement in patients with ICA stenosis.…”