Vascular injury
To induce thrombosis formation in the carotid artery, a ferric chloride (FeCl3) model of vessel injury [18,19] was employed. Mice were anesthetized with ketamine/xylazine (80 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg), a midline cervical incision was made and the left common carotid artery isolated by blunt dissection. The flow probe (Transonic Systems, model 0.5PSB) was placed under the artery and when a stable baseline was reached, a 0.5 × 2 mm strip of filter paper saturated with 10% FeCl3 solution was applied to the surface of the carotid artery for 3 min. Occlusion time was determined from the addition of the FeCl3 solution to the occlusion of the artery (minimum blood flow). The flow probe was in place from the establishment of the baseline until several min after the stable occlusion had been reached or stopped at 30 min if it had not occluded. Blood flow was recorded every 10 sec (Transonic Systems, model TS420). There was no difference in body weight among the mice that were tested in the vascular injury model.