The two primary categories of stroke, ischemic and hemorrhagic, both have fundamentally different mechanisms and thus different treatment options. These two stroke categories were applied to rat models to identify potential biomarkers that can distinguish between them. Ischemic stroke was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) without reperfusion while hemorrhagic stroke was induced by injecting collagenase IV into the striatum. Brain hemispheres and biofluids were collected at two time points: 3 and 6 h after stroke. Known molecules were tested on the rat samples via quantitative immunoblotting (injured brain, CSF) and Banyan's proprietary ELISA assays (CSF, serum). The injured brain quantitative analyses revealed that ell-spectrin breakdown products (SBDP150, SBDP145) were strongly increased after 6 h ischemia. In CSF, SBDP145 and ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase-L1 (UCH-L1) levels were elevated after 6 h ischemic stroke detected by Western blot and ELISA. In serum UCH-L1 levels were increased after 3 and 6 h of ischemia detected by ELISA. However, levels of those proteins in hemorrhagic stroke remain normal. In summary, in both the brain and the biofluids, SBDPs and UCH-L1 were elevated after ischemic but not hemorrhagic stroke. These molecules behaved differently in the two stroke models and thus may be capable of being differentiated. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.