Micro-PIV measurements of blood flow in extraembryonic blood vessels of chicken embryos.

The hemodynamic characteristics of blood flow are important in the diagnosis of circulatory diseases, since such diseases are related to wall shear stress of cardiovascular vessels. In chicken embryos at early stages of development, it is possible to directly visualize blood flow inside blood vessels. We therefore employed a micro-PIV technique to assess blood flow in extraembryonic venous and arterial blood vessels of chicken embryos, using red blood cells (RBCs) as tracers and obtaining flow images of RBCs using a high-speed CMOS camera. The mean velocity field showed non-Newtonian flow characteristics. The blood flow in two venous vessels merged smoothly into the Y-shaped downstream vein without any flow separation or secondary flow. Vorticity was high in the inner regions, where the radius of curvature varied greatly. A periodic variation of temporally resolved velocity signals, due to beating of the heart, was observed in arterial blood vessels. The pulsating frequency was obtained by fast Fourier transform analysis using the measured velocity data. The measurement technique used here was useful in analyzing the hemodynamic characteristics of in vivo blood flow in chicken embryos.