Intensity distribution segmentation in ultrafast Doppler combined with scanning laser confocal microscopy for assessing vascular changes associated with ageing in murine hippocampi

Maximiliano Anzibar Fialho, Lucia Vázquez Alberdi, Mariana Martínez, Miguel Calero, Jerome Baranger, Mickael Tanter, Juan Pablo Damián, Carlos Negreira, Nicolás Rubido, Alejandra Kun* (Corresponding Author), Javier Brum* (Corresponding Author)

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

The hippocampus plays an important role in learning and memory, requiring high-neuronal oxygenation. Understanding the relationship between blood flow and vascular structure—and how it changes with ageing—is physiologically and anatomically relevant. Ultrafast Doppler (μDoppler) and scanning laser confocal microscopy (SLCM) are powerful imaging modalities that can measure in vivo cerebral blood volume (CBV) and post mortem vascular structure, respectively. Here, we apply both imaging modalities to a cross-sectional and longitudinal study of hippocampi vasculature in wild-type mice brains. We introduce a segmentation of CBV distribution obtained from μDoppler and show that this mice-independent and mesoscopic measurement is correlated with vessel volume fraction (VVF) distribution obtained from SLCM—e.g., high CBV relates to specific vessel locations with large VVF. Moreover, we find significant changes in CBV distribution and vasculature due to ageing (5 vs. 21 month-old mice), highlighting the sensitivity of our approach. Overall, we are able to associate CBV with vascular structure—and track its longitudinal changes—at the artery-vein, venules, arteriole, and capillary levels. We believe that this combined approach can be a powerful tool for studying other acute (e.g., brain injuries), progressive (e.g., neurodegeneration) or induced pathological changes.
Original languageEnglish
Article number6784
Number of pages10
JournalScientific Reports
Volume12
Early online date26 Apr 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
This work was mainly funded by the Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII), grant FCE_1_2019_1_155539. Te authors also thank the support of PEDECIBA, CSIC-UdelaR and the Institut Franco—Uruguayen de Physique (IFUP), LIA-CNRS-UdelaR. J.P.D., C.N., N.R., A.K. and J.Br. thank SNI-ANII. M.A.F. thanks the support of ANII through POS_NAC_M_2020_1_164127 scholarship. M.M. thanks the support of ANII through POS_FCE_2020_1_1009181 scholarship. N.R. thanks the support of CSIC I+D group grant CSIC2018—FID 13—Grupo ID 722.

Data Availability Statement

Supplementary Information Te online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/
10.1038/s41598-022-10457-9.

Keywords

  • Ageing
  • Confocal microscopy
  • imaging techniques
  • Neural ageing
  • Ultrasound

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