Depth-resolved optical imaging of hemodynamic response in mouse brain within microcirculatory beds

Optical hemodynamic imaging employed in pre-clinical studies with high spatial and temporal resolution is significant to unveil the functional activities of brain and the mechanism of internal or external stimulus effects in diverse pathological conditions and treatments. Most current optical systems only resolve hemodynamic changes within superficial macro-circulatory beds, such as laser speckle contrast imaging; or only provide vascular structural information within micro-circulatory beds, such as multi-photon microscopy. In this study, we introduce a hemodynamic imaging system based on Optical Micro-angiography (OMAG) which is capable of resolving and quantifying 3D dynamic blood perfusion down to microcirculatory level. This system can measure the optical phase shifts caused by moving blood cells in microcirculation. Here, the utility of OMAG was demonstrated by monitoring the hemodynamic response to alcohol administration in mouse prefrontal cortex. Our preliminary results suggest that the spatiotemporal tracking of cerebral micro-hemodynamic using OMAG can be successfully applied to the mouse brain and reliably distinguish between vehicle and alcohol stimulation experiment.