Age-related changes in pial arterial structure and blood flow in mice.

Age-related cerebral blood flow decreases are thought to deteriorate cognition and cause senescence, although the related mechanism is unclear. To investigate the relationships between aging and changes in cerebral blood flow and vasculature, we obtained fluorescence images of young (2-month-old) and old (12-month-old) mice using indocyanine green (ICG). First, we found that the blood flow in old mice's brains is lower than that in young mice and that old mice had more curved pial arteries and fewer pial artery junctions than young mice.

Exendin-4 protects hindlimb ischemic injury by inducing angiogenesis.

Exendin-4, an analog of glucagon-like peptide-1, has shown to have beneficial effects on endothelial function, and was recently approved for the treatment of diabetes. In previous studies, we showed that exendin-4 induces angiogenesis in in vitro and ex vivo assays; in this study, we assessed the proangiogenic effects of exendin-4 in vivo using a mouse hindlimb ischemia model. Treatment with exendin-4 for three days mitigated hindlimb and gastrocnemius muscle fiber necrosis.

Use of indocyanine green for optical analysis of cortical infarcts in photothrombotic ischemic brains.

Background: Currently used techniques for diagnosing ischemic injury, such as magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography, are not easily accessible for basic research using small animals due to their high cost and low availability.

New Method: We investigated the dynamic recovery of infarct regions in ischemia-injured brains using indocyanine green (ICG), which is inexpensive and readily available. This dye was used to visualize blood vessels and infarct area, and to measure blood flow after a photothrombotic ischemic operation (PIO).

Optical measurement of mouse strain differences in cerebral blood flow using indocyanine green.

C57BL/6 mice have more cerebral arterial branches and collaterals than BALB/c mice. We measured and compared blood flow dynamics of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) in these two strains, using noninvasive optical imaging with indocyanine green (ICG). Relative maximum fluorescence intensity (Imax) and the time needed for ICG to reach Imax in the MCA of C57BL/c were lower than that in BALB/c mice.