2008 Stein Oppenheimer Endowment Award

Drs Gonzalez & Vinuela's ENDOVASCULAR STROKE  MODEL

The endovascular stroke model will allow for a more accurate simulation of human stroke conditions, utilizing minimally invasive techniques. Scientists and clinicians will benefit from a new model that can be used for molecular studies and new therapy testing. Such model may become a fundamental tool for the development of new therapeutic interventions for cerebrovascular disease.

UCLA Radiology is pleased to announce that Drs. Nestor Gonzalez and Fernando Vinuela from the Interventional Neuroradiology Division have been selected to receive the 2008 Stein Oppenheimer Endowment Award, a private grant from "Ijane inc."

Stroke is the leading cause of disability and third cause of death in the United States. Much of the research necessary to test new therapeutic strategies for stroke are limited by the current animal models which do not replicate the complexities of human stroke. Drs Gonzalez and Vinuela's awarded proposal of endovascular stroke model will allow for a more accurate simulation of human stroke conditions, utilizing minimally invasive techniques. Scientists and clinicians will benefit from a new model that can be used for molecular studies and new therapy testing.

Drs. Gonzalez and Vinuela propose to develop a novel canine stroke model using endovascular approach to transiently occlude the middle cerebral artery to induce an ischemic stroke. Using fluoroscopy-guided microcatheterization, they will differentially induce a stroke by occluding the MCA, quantify stroke volume by diffusion-weighted imaging, and analyze gene expression patterns in the post-stroke cortex by microarray analysis. This will lay grounds to characterization of a stroke model that closely mimics the pathophysiology of human stroke, reproducing the phenomena of recanalization and reperfusion after ischemia. This model will produce a stroke with specifically controlled ischemia time and lesion volume, which will be suitable for imaging and intervention studies and provide sufficient cortex for multiple molecular experiments. Such model may become a fundamental tool for the development of new therapeutic interventions for cerebrovascular disease.