Global cerebral ischemia models for genetically engineered mice are of particular importance for the study of delayed neuronal death, but have been complicated by variability of vascular anatomy. Here we developed a 5-min cardiac arrest model that was not affected by vascular anatomy, and evaluated the hippocampal neuronal injury in BL/6 and SV129 mice. Despite prolonged anoxic depolarization for approximately 7 min, however, no consistent ischemic neuronal injury was noted in the CA1 sector of the hippocampus in both strains. Thus, our observations suggested that murine hippocampal neurons are relatively resistant to ischemia compared with those in other rodents.