The effect of gradual or acute arterial occlusion on skeletal muscle blood flow, arteriogenesis, and inflammation in rat hindlimb ischemia

Despite the substantial clinical differences between acute and chronic ischemia, researchers attempting to develop molecular therapies to treat critical limb ischemia have only tested those therapies in experimental models of acute hindlimb ischemia. We present here a novel model of chronic hindlimb ischemia in the rat. We further demonstrate that when hindlimb ischemia is developed chronically, collateral artery development is poorer than when hindlimb ischemia is developed acutely. These findings suggest that further tests of molecular therapies for critical limb ischemia should be performed in chronic hindlimb ischemia models rather than in acute hindlimb ischemia models.