心血管疾病是全球死亡和患病率最高的原因之一。畸形凝血在糖尿病和肥胖等全身性疾病以及动脉粥样硬化、癌症和自身免疫疾病等慢性炎症性疾病中很常见。通常在血管损伤时，凝血系统、血小板和内皮细胞有序地作用来防止出血并在受伤处形成凝块。此过程的异常导致出血过多或无法控制的血栓形成/抗血栓活性不足，进而导致血管闭塞及其后发病过程。用FeCl3诱导的颈动脉损伤模型是探究血栓形成如何始发和进展的有价值工具。该模型涉及内皮细胞损伤/剥离，随后在损伤部位形成血栓。它提供了一种高度敏感、定量的检测方法，以监测对不同程度血管损伤的反应中的血管损伤和血栓形成。一旦优化，这个标准技术可用于研究血栓形成的分子机制以及在不断发展的血栓中血小板的超微结构变化。这种检测方法也有助于研究抗血栓和抗血小板药物的有效性。本文介绍如何引发和监测FeCl3诱导的动脉血栓，并如何通过电子显微镜分析采集样本。

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 injury, usually 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 this process lead to either excessive bleeding or uncontrolled thrombosis/insufficient antithrombotic activity, which translates into vessel occlusion and its sequelae. The FeCl3-induced carotid injury model is a valuable tool in probing how thrombosis initiates and progresses in vivo. This model involves endothelial damage/denudation and subsequent clot formation at the injured site. It provides a highly sensitive, quantitative assay to monitor vascular damage and clot formation in response to different degrees of vascular damage. 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. This article explains how to initiate and monitor FeCl3-induced arterial thrombosis and how to collect samples for analysis by electron microscopy.