The Different Responses to Femoral Artery Ligation‐induced Ischemia between Balb/c and C57BL/6 mice

Abstract

Peripheral arterial disease(PAD) is a common circulatory problem in lower extremities, and the murine experimental model is used to reproduce human PAD. Here, the left femoral artery was blocked by ligation to reduce blood flow to the limb of Balb/c and C57BL/6 mice, and the functional and morphological changes of gastrocnemius muscle were compared between Balb/c and C57BL/6 mice. It was found that Balb/c mice display serious skeletal muscle injuries after 6 weeks of the artery ligation, including irregular myofibers with more adipose-liked tissue (17.77 ± 0.88) compared to C57BL/6 mice (0.27% ± 0.07). The pretzel-like nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) clusters were fragmented by femoral artery ligation-induced ischemia in the gastrocnemius muscle from Balb/c mice (8.8 ± 1.3, compared to 2.5 ± 0.7 in C57BL/6). There is no difference in end plate potentials (EPPs) and skeletal muscle contraction between Balb/c (29.19 ± 2.25 mV and 77.1 ± 2.65 g) and C57BL/6 mice (29.2 mV ± 1.42 mV and 78.83 ± 2.47 g). After 6 weeks of the femoral artery ligation, EPPs and skeletal muscle contraction are smaller in Balb/c mice (8.9 ± 1.6 mV and 38.6 ± 7.3 g), compared to C57BL/6 mice (19.9 ± 2.0 mV and 71.9 ± 3.2 g). These results confirmed that pathophysiological alterations in the neuromuscular junction and skeletal muscle of Balb/c mice are kept a long period after the femoral artery ligation, while neuromuscular junction and skeletal muscle function is rapidly recovered in C57BL/6 mice with the femoral artery ligation. This study suggests that femoral artery ligation-induced ischemia in Balb/c mouse is an appropriate experimental model to reproduce PAD.