Ferric Chloride-Induced Arterial Thrombosis in a Murine Model: Measurement of Occlusion and Sample Collection for Electron Microscopy

Cardiovascular diseases are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Aberrant thrombosis is a common feature of systemic conditions like diabetes and obesity and chronic inflammatory diseases like atherosclerosis, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. Upon vascular insult, the coagulation system, platelets, and endothelium act in an orchestrated manner to prevent bleeding by forming a clot at the site of the injury. Abnormalities in these players lead to either uncontrolled thrombosis or insufficient antithrombotic activity which translates into vessel occlusion and its sequelae. The FeCl 3 -induced carotid injury model is a valuable tool in probing how thrombosis is initiated and progresses in vivo. This model is based on endothelial damage/denudation and subsequent clot formation at the injury site. It provides a highly sensitive, quantitative assay to monitor vascular damage and clot formation in response to different degrees of inflicted injury. Once optimized, this standard technique can be used to study the molecular mechanisms underlying thrombosis as well as the ultrastructural changes in platelets in a growing thrombus. This assay is also useful to study the efficacy of antithrombotic and antiplatelet agents. In this article, we explain how to initiate and monitor FeCl 3 -induced arterial thrombosis and how to collect samples for analysis by electron microscopy.