Measurement of urinary catecholamines in small samples for mice.

Introduction: Analysis of catecholamines in small samples of urine is difficult and sensitive to stress. Current techniques require pooling of samples or expensive separation by double mass spectrometry. A method for extraction of unconjugated catecholamines in 20μL urine samples has been developed using alumina extraction prior to separation by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and electrochemical detection (ECD).

Quantification of plaque neovascularization using contrast ultrasound: a histologic validation.

Aims: The density of vasa vasorum within atherosclerotic plaque correlates with histologic features of plaque vulnerability in post-mortem studies. Imaging methods to non-invasively detect vasa vasorum are limited. We hypothesized that contrast ultrasound (CUS) can quantify vasa vasorum during atherosclerosis progression.

A novel hydrodynamic method for microvascular flow enhancement.

We have shown that drag-reducing polymers (DRP) restore perfusion to a stenotic bed by lowering microvascular resistance. We studied whether resistance-lowering by DRP are due to changes in hydrodynamics or vasodilation. During intravital microscopy of rat cremaster muscle (n=18), DRP infusion increased aortic flow (p<0.

Fate of culture-expanded mesenchymal stem cells in the microvasculature: in vivo observations of cell kinetics.

Vascular delivery of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) following myocardial infarction is under clinical investigation. Little is known about the microvascular fate of MSCs. We used intravital microscopy of rat cremaster muscle microcirculation to track intraarterially delivered MSCs.