Dynamic in vivo Imaging of Microvasculature and Perfusion by Miniaturized Confocal Laser Microscopy

<i>Introduction:</i> Microvasculature and associated pathologies mandate dynamic imaging. We evaluated a novel miniaturized confocal laser scanning probe for in vivo visualization of blood vessels, blood flow, cell tracking and perfusion in both healthy rodents and disease models.<i> Methods:</i> The hand-held confocal microscopy system allowed a 500- to 2,400-fold magnification at a dynamically variable imaging depth. Different intravital stains were used alone or in combination for tissue, nuclear, plasma and vascular endothelial cell staining and for blood flow visualization, and targeted staining for individual cell populations. <i>Results:</i> Precis…