Animal Models of Vascular Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (VCID)

Vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) is the most common etiology of dementia in the elderly. Both, vascular and Alzheimer’s disease, pathologies work synergistically to create neurodegeneration and cognitive impairments. The main causes of VCID include hemorrhage/microbleed (i.e., hyperhomocysteinemia), cerebral small vessel disease, multi-infarct dementia, severe hypoperfusion (i.e., bilateral common carotid artery stenosis), strategic infarct, angiopathy (i.e., cerebral angiopathy), and hereditary vasculopathy (i.e., cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy). In this review, we will discuss the experimental animal models that have been developed to study these pathologies. We will discuss the limitations and strengths of these models and the important research findings that have advanced the field through the use of the models.