Some observations on the cerebral arterial circles of mink (Mustela vison)

With the exception of a brief allusion to an unidentified species of Mustela with regard to cerebral vascular studies by de Vriese ('05), major information concerning the circle of Willis in mink was nonexistent until the present investigation. Brains of mink in which the cerebral arterial circles were injected with latex and subsequently hardened in formalin, revealed the primary cerebral arterial anastomosis to be ring-like in form; all of the component vessels were patent and well formed, none was attenuated or string-like. Some of the more prominent findings included: (1) a predominance of asymmetric divergence of the posterior communicating arteries separating from the bifurcating basilar artery; (2) the presence of a posterior intercommunicating artery in all of the specimens; (3) the occasional doubling of the superior cerebellar and the posterior cerebral arteries; (4) deeply placed internal cerebral loops forming secondary arterial anastomoses between some penetrating vessels in the caudal region of the circle; other loops interconnected other penetrating vessels in the rostral region of the circle; (5) blood channels forming an intercarotid anastomosis traversed the pia mater; (6) the presence of a penetrating artery adjunctive to the recurrent artery of Heubner; (7) anastomoses between the internal and the external ophthalmic arteries, and between the internal and the external olfactory arteries forming collateral channels of communication between the intracranial and the extracranial circulations; (8) the occasional presence of an anterior communicating artery supplementing the commonly occurring azygos anterior cerebral artery which continued as a single vessel throughout its extent; (9) unjoined anterior cerebral arteries in one animal which was exceptional.