Establishing a rat model of spastic cerebral palsy by targeted ethanol injection

Spastic cerebral palsy is generally considered to result from cerebral cortical or pyramidal tract damage.Here,we precisely targeted the left pyramidal tract of 2-month-old Sprague-Dawley rats placed on a stereotaxic instrument under intraperitoneal anesthesia.Based on the rat brain stereotaxic map,a 1-mm hole was made 10 mm posterior to bregma and 0.8 mm left of sagitta suture.A microsyringe was inserted perpendicularly to the surface of the brain to a depth of 9.7 mm and 15μL of ethanol was slowly injected to establish a rat model of spastic cerebral palsy.After modeling,the rats appeared to have necrotic voids in the pyramidal tract and exhibited typical signs and symptoms of flexion spasms that lasted for a long period of time.These findings indicate that this is an effective and easy method of establishing a rat model of spastic cerebral palsy with good reproducibility.Ethanol as a chemical ablation agent specifically and thoroughly damages the pyramidal tract,and therefore,the animals display flexion spasms,which are a typical symptom of the disease.