Oedema-related tissue damage after temporary and permanent occlusion of the middle cerebral artery

Eleven adults spontaneously-hypertensive male rats (SHR) were studied 22 h or 7 days after a 2 h unilateral occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery (MCA). Another 11 SHR were studied after 24 h or 7 days of permanent MCA ligation. The brain infarcts were significantly larger (P < 0.05) after permanent occlusion than after a 2 h occlusion. More extensive and widespread vasogenic oedema, emanating from the infarcts, was visualized immunohistochemically in the temporarily-ligated animals and the relative number of astrocytes in their contralateral hemispheres was greater, thereby indicating that the vasogenic oedema influences the degree of gliosis. An immunopositivity for albumin but not for fibrinogen extended via the white matter into the ipsilateral thalamic nuclei, where cytolytic nerve cell damage, severely shrunken and karyorrhectic nerve cells as well as gliosis were found one week after permanent and temporary MCA ligation. The histological changes in the thalamus indicated a difference in timing between lateral and medial parts of the lesion as well as between temporarily- and permanently-ligated SHR. These findings together with the close spatial correlation with albumin immunoreactivity indicate that the spread of extravasated plasma constituents or degradation products with the oedema bulk flow from the infarct influences the timing, character and extent of thalamic lesions after cerebral infarction.