Rat Carotid Artery Balloon Injury Model

At day 0, the rats were sedated, intraperitoneally, with sodium pentobarbital (30 mg/kg). After that, to uncover the left external carotid artery, a mid-line incision in the neck was performed. Through an arteriotomy, a 2.0 Fogarty arterial embolectomy catheter was inserted into the artery and moved into the common carotid artery. The balloon was first blown up with 2 atm and thereafter removed in a rotating movement in the direction of the external carotid artery. The routine was repeated thrice. After removal of the catheter, ligation of the external carotid artery was performed. In sham operated rats, the right common carotid artery was exposed without catheterization. Two weeks afterward, the rats of the SSE groups received intragastrically varying dosages of SSE, which was continued every day for the duration of 2 weeks.

Following these four weeks, the rats were euthanized and the injured carotid arteries were gathered for histology and western blot analyses.