While tissue perfusion and angiogenesis subsequent to acute femoral artery occlusion are suppressed in Nox2-/- mice, studies have not established the role of Nox2 in collateral artery enlargement. Rac2 is a small GTPase which binds Nox2 and activates the Nox2-based NAD(P)H oxidase, but unlike Nox2 is primarily restricted to bone marrow derived cells. In this study, we utilized Rac2-/- and Nox2-/- mice with a novel method of identifying primary hindlimb collaterals to investigate the hypothesis that collateral growth requires these molecules. When initial studies performed with femoral ligation demonstrated similar perfusion and collateral growth in the Rac2-/- and C57BL/6 Wild-type (BL6), subsequent studies were performed with a more severe ischemia model, femoral artery excision. After femoral excision, tissue perfusion was suppressed in Rac2 -/- relative to BL6 mice. Histological assessment of ischemic injury including necrotic and regenerated muscle fibers and lipid and collagen deposition demonstrated greater injury in the Rac2 -/-. The diameters of primary collaterals identified during Microfil® injection with intravital microscopy were enlarged to a similar extent in BL6 and Rac2-/- mice. Intimal cells in collateral cross-sections were increased in number in both strains and were CD31 positive, CD45 negative. Circulating leukocytes and CD11b⁺ cells were increased more in Rac2-/- than BL6. Experiments performed in Nox2-/- mice to verify that the unexpected results related to collateral growth were not unique to the Rac2-/- gave equivalent results. The data demonstrate that, subsequent to acute femoral artery excision, perfusion recovery is impaired in Rac2-/- and Nox2-/- mice but that collateral luminal expansion and intimal cell recruitment/proliferation are normal. These novel results indicate that collateral luminal expansion and intimal cell recruitment/proliferation are not mediated by Rac2 and Nox2.