Establishment of subaraehnoid hemorrhage induced cerebral vasospasm model of rats

Abstract:

Objective：To establish a rat model of subarachnoid hemorrhage（SAH） induced cerebral vasospasm by injecting autologous non-heparinised arterial blood into the cisterna magna twice． Methods：Totally 117 male SD rats were randomly assigned to sham group（n=52） and SAH group（n=65）. Rats in the two groups were randomly assigned to 1，3，5，10，14 d group after the second sepa－ration. The SAH model was produced by injecting autologous non-heparinised arterial blood into the cisterna magna twice. Sham operated rats were injected equal volume of physiological saline solution instead of blood according to the same procedure. Motality，neurological function，brain water content and brain histological were investigated on 1，3，5，10，14 d following onset of SAH. Wall thickness and mean cross-sectional area of basilar artery（BA） were measured at different time points. Results：Compared with those in sham group，neurological scores were reduced in SAH-3d group（P=0.001）. The brain water content was increased in SAH-1d group（P=0.000）. The average diameter（P=0.001） and cross-sectional area of the BA（P=0.002） were decreased while the wall thickness was increased（P=0.000） in SAH-1 d group，SAH-3 d group and SAH-5 d group with statistical differences. Conclusion：SAH in－duced cerebral vasospasm model can be successfully established by injecting autologous non-heparinised arterial blood into the cis－terna magna twice，which model is applicable to study neurological damage and drug intervention following SAH.