Fig. 2

Longitudinal in vivo miniscope imaging of temporal and spatial patterns of cortical microvascular networks following cortical contusion injury. A Schematic of our miniature microscope for microcirculation imaging (details at http://miniscope.org/). B A mouse fitted with the head mounted microscope. C Schematic locations of GRIN lens implantation in sham and cortical contusion injury (CCI = TBI) mice. D Miniscope imaging of the cortex of control/sham mice reveals a diversity of vessel sizes, ranging from large cortical vessels on the surface of the cortex along with dense plexus of smaller vessels. Microvascular networks were visualized by intravenous injection of fluorescent-labeled dextran. E Longitudinal tracking of cortical angioarchitecture from the same mouse spanning 1 to 22 dpi in the same field of view illustrates the progressive repair of the vasculature, following TBI. Vessel center lines delineated by software assist visualization (red lines). F Vessel density over the 31 dpi observation rapidly increases over the first 14d and then plateaus in the TBI model (n = 4) with control/sham (n = 4) mice having a stable vessel coverage (gray line with 95%CI). G The number of junctions also increases with time in all TBI mice (n = 4). Control/sham mice have a stable number of vascular junctions (gray line, 95% CI; n = 4). H strong linear correlation (R² = 0.899, red line) is observed where the number of junctions increases linearly with the increasing total vessel length (n = 4). The 95% confidence intervals are also plotted