Mouse Cardiac Arrest Model for Brain Imaging and Brain Physiology Monitoring During Ischemia and Resuscitation

Most cardiac arrest (CA) survivors experience varying degrees of neurologic deficits. To understand the mechanisms that underpin CA-induced brain injury and, subsequently, develop effective treatments, experimental CA research is essential. To this end, a few mouse CA models have been established. In most of these models, the mice are placed in the supine position in order to perform chest compression for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). However, this resuscitation procedure makes the real-time imaging/monitoring of brain physiology during CA and resuscitation challenging. To obtain such critical knowledge, the present protocol presents a mouse asphyxia CA model that does not require the chest compression CPR step. This model allows for the study of dynamic changes in blood flow, vascular structure, electrical potentials, and brain tissue oxygen from the pre-CA baseline to early post-CA reperfusion. Importantly, this model applies to aged mice. Thus, this mouse CA model is expected to be a critical tool for deciphering the impact of CA on brain physiology.