Work

Longitudinal Awake Imaging of Deep Mouse Brain Microvasculature with Super-resolution Ultrasound Localization Microscopy

Year: 2024

Type: preprint

Abstract: Super-resolution ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) is an emerging imaging modality that resolves capillary-scale microvasculature in deep tissues. However, existing preclinical ULM applications are largely constrained to anesthetized animals, introducing confounding vascular effects such as vasodilation and altered hemodynamics. As such, ULM quantifications (e.g., vessel diameter, density, and flow velocity) may be confounded by the use of anesthesia, undermining the usefulness of ULM in practice. Here we introduce a method to address this limitation and achieve ULM imaging in awake mouse brain. Pupillary monitoring was used to confirm the awake state during ULM imaging. ULM revealed that veins showed a greater degree of vascularity reduction from anesthesia to awake states than did arteries. The reduction was most significant in the midbrain and least significant in the cortex. ULM also revealed a significant reduction in venous blood flow velocity across different brain regions under awake conditions. Serial in vivo imaging of the same animal brain at weekly intervals demonstrated the highly robust longitudinal imaging capability of the proposed technique. This is the first study demonstrating longitudinal ULM imaging in the awake mouse brain, which is essential for many ULM brain applications that require awake and behaving animals.

Source: eLife

DOI: 10.7554/elife.95168.1

Authors: Yike Wang, Matthew R. Lowerison, Qi You, Bing-Ze Lin, Daniel A. Llano, Pengfei Song

Institution: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Language: English

Topic: Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging

Subfield: Biomedical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,500