Dynamic Contrast Optical Coherence Tomography reveals laminar microvascular hemodynamics in the mouse neocortex in vivo.

ABSTRACT: Studies of flow-metabolism coupling often presume that microvessel architecture is a surrogate for blood flow. To test this assumption, we introduce an in vivo Dynamic Contrast Optical Coherence Tomography (DyC-OCT) method to quantify layer-resolved microvascular blood flow and volume across the full depth of the mouse neocortex, where the angioarchitecture has been previously described. First, we cross-validate average DyC-OCT cortical flow against conventional Doppler OCT flow. Next, with laminar DyC-OCT, we discover that layer 4 consistently exhibits the highest microvascular blood flow, approximately two-fold higher than the outer cortical layers. While flow differences between layers are well-explained by microvascular volume and density, flow differences between subjects are better e

SUBMITTER: Merkle CW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6819266 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature