Lateral Chronic Cranial Window Preparation Enables In Vivo Observation Following Distal Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion in Mice

Focal cerebral ischemia (i.e., ischemic stroke) may cause major brain injury, leading to a severe loss of neuronal function and consequently to a host of motor and cognitive disabilities. Its high prevalence poses a serious health burden, as stroke is among the principal causes of long-term disability and death worldwide(1). Recovery of neuronal function is, in most cases, only partial. So far, treatment options are very limited, in particular due to the narrow time window for thrombolysis(2,3). Determining methods to accelerate recovery from stroke remains a prime medical goal; however, this has been hampered by insufficient mechanistic insights into the recovery process. Experimental stroke researchers frequently employ rodent models of focal cerebral ischemia. Beyond the acute phase, stroke research is increasingly focused on the sub-acute and chronic phase following cerebral ischemia. Most stroke researchers apply permanent or transient occlusion of the MCA in mice or rats. In patients, occlusions of the MCA are among the most frequent causes of ischemic stroke(4). Besides proximal occlusion of the MCA using the filament model, surgical occlusion of the distal MCA is probably the most frequently used model in experimental stroke research(5). Occlusion of a distal ( to the branching of the lenticulo-striate arteries) MCA branch typically spares the striatum and primarily affects the neocortex. Vessel occlusion can be permanent or transient. High reproducibility of lesion volume and very low mortality rates with respect to the long-term outcome are the main advantages of this model. Here, we demonstrate how to perform a chronic cranial window (CW) preparation lateral to the sagittal sinus, and afterwards how to surgically induce a distal stroke underneath the window using a craniotomy approach. This approach can be applied for sequential imaging of acute and chronic changes following ischemia via epi-illuminating, confocal laser scanning, and two-photon intravital microscopy.