Tarantini Stefano, Fulop Gabor A, Kiss Tamas, Farkas Eszter, Zölei-Szénási Dániel, Galvan Veronica, Toth Peter, Csiszar Anna, Ungvari Zoltan, Yabluchanskiy Andriy
Reynolds Oklahoma Center on Aging, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 975 NE 10th Street, Oklahoma, OK, 73104, USA.
Translational Geroscience Laboratory, Department of Geriatric Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma, OK, USA.
Geroscience. 2017 Aug;39(4):465-473. doi: 10.1007/s11357-017-9980-z. Epub 2017 Jun 3.
Increasing evidence from epidemiological, clinical, and experimental studies indicates that cerebromicrovascular dysfunction and microcirculatory damage play critical roles in the pathogenesis of many types of dementia in the elderly, including both vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and Alzheimer's disease. Vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) include impairment of neurovascular coupling responses/functional hyperemia ("neurovascular uncoupling"). Due to the growing interest in understanding and pharmacologically targeting pathophysiological mechanisms of VCID, there is an increasing need for sensitive, easy-to-establish methods to assess neurovascular coupling responses. Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) is a technique that allows rapid and minimally invasive visualization of changes in regional cerebromicrovascular blood perfusion. This type of imaging technique combines high resolution and speed to provide great spatiotemporal accuracy to measure moment-to-moment changes in cerebral blood flow induced by neuronal activation. Here, we provide detailed protocols for the successful measurement in neurovascular coupling responses in anesthetized mice equipped with a thinned-skull cranial window using LSCI. This method can be used to evaluate the effects of anti-aging or anti-AD treatments on cerebromicrovascular health.
越来越多的流行病学、临床和实验研究证据表明,脑微血管功能障碍和微循环损伤在包括血管性认知障碍(VCI)和阿尔茨海默病在内的多种老年痴呆症的发病机制中起关键作用。血管对认知障碍和痴呆(VCID)的影响包括神经血管耦合反应/功能性充血受损(“神经血管解耦联”)。由于人们对理解和药理靶向VCID的病理生理机制的兴趣日益浓厚,因此越来越需要灵敏、易于建立的方法来评估神经血管耦合反应。激光散斑对比成像(LSCI)是一种能够快速、微创地可视化局部脑微血管血流灌注变化的技术。这种成像技术结合了高分辨率和速度,为测量神经元激活引起的脑血流的瞬间变化提供了很高的时空精度。在此,我们提供了详细的方案,用于使用LSCI成功测量配备薄颅骨颅窗的麻醉小鼠的神经血管耦合反应。该方法可用于评估抗衰老或抗AD治疗对脑微血管健康的影响。