Fig. 9

Emergent filopodia post cortical injury underlie re-growth of cortical vascular networks. A Exemplar 2P images from the same mouse with longitudinal imaging over the course of 28d post TBI. Top panel shows the emergence of an endothelial cell filopodia (EC = red) (arrows) at 3 dpi that is partially perfused (Green = FITC labeled blood flow). The * marks new vessel elements that are not yet perfused. As filopodia (arrows) continue to grow over the next several weeks, non-perfused vessels (*) increasingly become perfused as marked (filled diamond). B Another example from a mouse illustrating the rapid conversion of new filopodia (arrows) within 1 day from non-perfused (*) to perfused vessels (filled diamond). C In a third example, the left panel shows a single nascent filopodial element (arrow) at 3 dpi that rapidly leads to a marked increase in vessel elements at 9 dpi (center panel) that are predominately non-perfused (*). By 21 dpi many of the vessels are more robustly delineated with endothelial cell bodies lining the vessels (right panel) and are being perfused (filled diamond). D Quantification of vessel density as a percent of the image area illustrates the progressive increase in vessel generation with time (n = 4 mice). E All raw image data are normalized to the first 2P recording (3 dpi) to demonstrate the rapid growth of new vessels from nascent filopodia over the 28 dpi recording period (mean ± SEM; n = 4)