Abstract

Comment on: Rodent stroke model guidelines for pre-clinical stroke trials (1st edition)

Author(s): Maureen Walberer, Maria Adele Dennin, Michael Schroeter

Over the past years, severe difficulties in translating experimental stroke research from bench-to-bedside have become apparent, and call for fresh ideas on why bench results get “lost in translation”. In an attempt to close this gap, we suggest to perform experimental stroke studies in an intraindividual, longitudinal and translational way using multi-modal in vivo imaging protocols. Besides allowing us to stratify experimental animals in vivo, non-invasive imaging can also generate specific read-outs that allow monitoring the efficiency of individual treatments. Such an experimental design may specifically overcome the disadvantageous effects of increased variability in embolic stroke models. The quite novel “macrosphere model” of embolic stroke comprises a number of advantages, both regarding its particular usefulness for longitudinal imaging as well as its interesting pathophysiological aspects linking it to human stroke.