Real-time, multidimensional in vivo imaging used to investigate blood flow in mouse pancreatic islets.
The pancreatic islets of Langerhans are highly vascularized micro-organs that play a key role in the regulation of blood glucose homeostasis. The specific arrangement of endocrine cell types in islets suggests a coupling between morphology and function within the islet. Here, we established a line-scanning confocal microscopy approach to examine the relationship between blood flow and islet cell type arrangement by real-time in vivo imaging of intra-islet blood flow in mice. These data were used to reconstruct the in vivo 3D architecture of the islet and time-resolved blood flow patterns throughout the islet vascular bed. The results revealed 2 predominant blood flow patterns in mouse islets: inner-to-outer, in which blood perfuses the core of beta cells before the islet perimeter of non-beta cells, and top-to-bottom, in which blood perfuses the islet from one side to the other regardless of cell type. Our approach included both millisecond temporal resolution and submicron spatial resolution, allowing for real-time imaging of islet blood flow within the living mouse, which has not to our knowledge been attainable by other methods.
Nyman
Lara R
LR
Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Wells
K Sam
KS
Head
W Steve
WS
McCaughey
Michael
M
Ford
Eric
E
Brissova
Marcela
M
Piston
David W
DW
Powers
Alvin C
AC
D000818:Animals; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006439:Hemodynamics; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D013997:Time Factors