What is it about?
Scientists at the University Hospital and University of Zurich have developed a new way to create live images of blood vessels in the brain and the skull with more clarity. This new tool allowed to uncover how the vascular network in the brain adapts to ischemic stroke.
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Why is it important?
Imaging the brain vessels is crucial for understanding the functions and diseases of the brain. For example, doctors would really like to be able to watch blood flowing in the brain in real time- that would allow them to see blockages, clots, tumors and a host of other neurological diseases, including stroke, vascular dementia, autism spectrum disorder and Parkinson's disease. Unfortunately, despite their importance for proper brain functioning, quantitative hemodynamic information of the brain and skull vascular networks remained scarce, given that commonly used bioimaging methods did not enable precise measurements of these vessels. In this new effort, the team of Dr. Mohamad El Amki (Neurology Department, University Hospital of Zurich) and Prof. Bruno Weber (Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich) report that they have taken a step closer using an approach that involves combining high speed cameras and microscopic fluorescent particles injected into the bloodstream of living mice. This approach enabled fast, quantitative and brain wide monitoring of blood vessels properties including morphology, topology, flow speed, flow direction and vascular diameters.
Perspectives
I am incredibly grateful to all co-authors for their contributions to this publication. This work is a great collaboration with Prof. Bruno Weber, Prof. Daniel Razansky and Prof. Susanne Wegener. This new microscope will provide a steppingstone toward understanding the function of the brain vascular networks and will arouse strong interest in the neuroscience/neuroimmunology/neurology community at large. I believe that combining technology and science is going to be the basis for many of the solutions to cerebrovascular disease.
Mohamad Amki
University Hospital of Zurich and Universoty of Zurich
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Pia-FLOW: Deciphering hemodynamic maps of the pial vascular connectome and its response to arterial occlusion, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2402624121.
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