After evaluating several maneuvers to produce NMO pathology in seropositive rats, we found that a single needle insertion into brain parenchyma was sufficient to produce robust lesions around the needle track, with the characteristic pathological features of human NMO including loss of AQP4, GFAP and myelin, vasculocentric deposition of activated complement, granulocyte and macrophage infiltration, and blood–brain barrier disruption. Here, AQP4 is linked to neuromyelitis optica.