Intermittent claudication is one of the commonest manifestations of peripheral vascular disease, and is managed in a variety of ways. Some degree of spontaneous improvement is noted in approximately 50% of patients with intermittent claudication. Collateral formation is a possible mechanism for this. Collateral formation is frequently noted in areas of arterial occlusion yet the mechanism underlying it, termed arteriogenesis is still relatively poorly understood. Much of the experimental work on arteriogenesis has been performed on mice, ligating a hind limb artery to induce ischaemia, and then using a variety of techniques to measure collateral formation during recovery.