Optical coherence microangiography of the mouse kidney for diagnosis of circulatory disorders

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become widespread in clinical applications in which precise three-dimensional functional imaging of living organs is required. Nevertheless, the kidney is inaccessible for the high resolution OCT imaging due to a high light attenuation coefficient of skin and soft tissues that significantly limits the penetration depth of the probing laser beam. Here, we introduce a surgical protocol and fixation scheme that enables functional visualization of kidney’s peritubular capillaries via OCT microangiography. The model of reversible/irreversible glomerulus embolization using drug microcarriers confirms the ability of OCT to detect circulatory disorders. This approach can be used for choosing optimal carriers, their dosages and diagnosis of other blood flow pathologies

Cerebral venous circulatory disturbance as an informative prognostic marker for neonatal hemorrhagic stroke

Neonatal hemorrhagic stroke (NHS) is a major problem of future generation’s health due to the high rate of death and cognitive disability of newborns after NHS. The incidence of NHS in neonates cannot be predicted by standard diagnostic methods. Therefore, the identification of prognostic markers of NHS is crucial. There is evidence that stress-related alterations of cerebral blood flow (CBF) may contribute to NHS. Here, we assessed the stroke-associated CBF abnormalities for high prognosis of NHS using a new model of NHS induced by sound stress in the pre- and post-stroke state. With this aim, we used interdisciplinary methods such as a histological assay of brain tissues, laser speckle contrast imaging and Doppler coherent tomography to monitor cerebral circulation. Our results suggest that the venous stasis with such symptoms as progressive relaxation of cerebral veins, decrease the velocity of blood flow in them are prognostic markers for a risk of NHS and are an informative platform for a future study of corrections of cerebral venous circulatory disturbance related to NHS

Characterization of cerebral blood flow dynamics with multiscale entropy

Based on the laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) and the multiscale entropy (MSE), we study in this work the blood flow dynamics at the levels of cerebral veins and the surrounding network of microcerebral vessels. We discuss how the phenylephrine-related acute peripheral hypertension is reflected in the cerebral circulation and show that the observed changes are scale-dependent, and they are significantly more pronounced in microcerebral vessels, while the macrocerebral dynamics does not demonstrate authentic inter-group distinctions. We also consider the permeability of blood–brain barrier (BBB) and study its opening caused by sound exposure. We show that alterations associated with the BBB opening can be revealed by the analysis of blood flow at the level of macrocerebral vessels

Stress plays provoking role in hypertension-related stroke: Injuries of blood-brain barrier function

Chronic hypertension itself does not cause stroke but significantly decreases the resistant to stroke induced by stress due to exhausting of adaptive capacity of cerebral endothelium and decrease resistance of blood-brain barrier to stress

Lightsheet-based flow cytometer for whole blood with the ability for the magnetic retrieval of objects from the blood flow

Detection and extraction of circulating tumor cells and other rare objects in the bloodstream are of great interest for modern diagnostics, but devices that can solve this problem for the whole blood volume of laboratory animals are still rare. Here we have developed SPIM-based lightsheet flow cytometer for the detection of fluorescently-labeled objects in whole blood. The bypass channel between two blood vessels connected with the external flow cell was used to visualize, detect, and magnetically separate fluorescently-labeled objects without hydrodynamic focusing. Carriers for targeted drug delivery were used as model objects to test the device performance. They were injected into the bloodstream of the rat, detected fluorescently, and then captured from the bloodstream by a magnetic separator prior to filtration in organs. Carriers extracted from the whole blood were studied by a number of in vitro methods

Roadmap on holography

From its inception holography has proven an extremely productive and attractive area of research. While specific technical applications give rise to 'hot topics', and three-dimensional (3D) visualisation comes in and out of fashion, the core principals involved continue to lead to exciting innovations in a wide range of areas. We humbly submit that it is impossible, in any journal document of this type, to fully reflect current and potential activity; however, our valiant contributors have produced a series of documents that go no small way to neatly capture progress across a wide range of core activities. As editors we have attempted to spread our net wide in order to illustrate the breadth of international activity. In relation to this we believe we have been at least partially successful.This work was supported by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Spain) under projects FIS2017-82919-R (MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE) and FIS2015-66570-P (MINECO/FEDER), and by Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) under project PROMETEO II/2015/015

Abstracts from the 20th International Symposium on Signal Transduction at the Blood-Brain Barriers

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138963/1/12987_2017_Article_71.pd

Template-Free Manufacturing of Defined Structure and Size Polymeric Microparticles

Complex-structured polymeric microparticles hold significant promise as an advance in next-generation medicine mostly due to demand from developing targeted drug delivery. However, the conventional methods for producing these microparticles of defined size, shape, and sophisticated composition often face challenges in scalability, reliance on specialized components such as micro-patterned templates, or limited control over particle size distribution and cargo (functional payload) release kinetics. In this study, we introduce a novel and reliably scalable approach for manufacturing microparticles of defined structures and sizes with variable parameters. The concept behind this method involves the deposition of a specific number of polymer layers on a substrate with low surface energy. Each layer can serve as either the carrier for cargo or a programmable shell-former with predefined permeability. Subsequently, this layered structure is precisely cut into desired-size blanks (particle precursors) using a laser. The manufacturing process is completed by applying heat to the substrate, which results in sealing the edges of the blanks. The combination of the high surface tension of the molten polymer and the low surface energy of the substrate enables the formation of discrete particles, each possessing semi-spherical or other designed geometries determined by their internal composition. Such anisotropic microparticles are envisaged to have versatile applications

Additive Manufacturing of Drug-Eluting Multilayer Biodegradable Films

Drug-eluting films made of bioresorbable polymers are a widely used tool of modern personalized medicine. However, most currently existing methods of producing coatings do not go beyond the laboratory, as they have low encapsulation efficiency and/or difficulties in scaling up. The PLACE (Printed Layered Adjustable Cargo Encapsulation) technology proposed in this article uses an additive approach for film manufacturing. PLACE technology is accessible, scalable, and reproducible in any laboratory. As a demonstration of the technology capabilities, we fabricated layered drug-eluting polyglycolic acid films containing different concentrations of Cefazolin antibiotic. The influence of the amount of loaded drug component on the film production process and the release kinetics was studied. The specific loading of drugs was significantly increased to 200–400 µg/cm2 while maintaining the uniform release of Cefazolin antibiotic in a dosage sufficient for local antimicrobial therapy for 14 days. The fact that the further increase in the drug amount results in the crystallization of a substance, which can lead to specific defects in the cover film formation and accelerated one-week cargo release, was also shown, and options for further technology development were proposed

Hidden stage of intracranial hemorrhage in newborn rats studied with laser speckle contrast imaging and wavelets

Using the laser speckle contrast imaging and wavelet-based analyses, we investigate a latent (a "hidden") stage of the development of intracranial hemorrhages (ICHs) in newborn rats. We apply two measures based on the continuous wavelet-transform of blood flow velocity in the sagittal sinus, namely, the spectral energy in distinct frequency ranges and a multiscality degree characterizing complexity of experimental data. We show that the wavelet-based multifractal formalism reveals changes in the cerebrovascular blood flow at the development of ICH