title: Photoacoustic microscopy of microvascular responses to cortical electrical stimulation.
abstract: Advances in the functional imaging of cortical hemodynamics have greatly facilitated the understanding of neurovascular coupling. In this study, label-free optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) was used to monitor microvascular responses to direct electrical stimulations of the mouse somatosensory cortex through a cranial opening. The responses appeared in two forms: vasoconstriction and vasodilatation. The transition between these two forms of response was observed in single vessels by varying the stimulation intensity. Marked correlation was found between the current-dependent responses of two daughter vessels bifurcating from the same parent vessel. Statistical analysis of twenty-seven vessels from three different animals further characterized the spatial-temporal features and the current dependence of the microvascular response. Our results demonstrate that OR-PAM is a valuable tool to study neurovascular coupling at the microscopic level.
authors.affiliation: Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Biomedical Engineering, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.
authors.forename: Vassiliy
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tsytsarev
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Junjie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maslov
authors.forename: Dennis L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Barbour
authors.forename: Lihong V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D053844:Lasers, Solid-State; D051379:Mice; D033401:Microscopy, Acoustic / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D055806:Microvessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000502:physiology*; D014661:Vasoconstriction / Q000502:physiology; D014664:Vasodilation / Q000502:physiology