神经生物学

The formation of new blood vessels is a major hallmark in the process of malignant transformation in human glioblastomas. In diffusely infiltrating gliomas, enhanced angiogenesis is associated with decreased patient survival rates and therefore serves as a central diagnostic cri ...

The goal of this chapter is to highlight techniques used to determine the role of molecular mechanisms involved in remodeling of cerebral blood vessels. Enhanced vascularization in the central nervous system (CNS) is seen in many diseases including stroke, cancer, and multiple sclerosis ...

Angiogenesis, the sprouting of new capillaries from preexisting vessels, is an integral part of both normal development and numerous pathological conditions such as tumor growth, inflammation, and stroke. The development of angiogenesis assays has been critical in understandi ...

Here we provide a standardized protocol for performing distal middle cerebral artery occlusion (DMCAO) in mice. DMCAO is a method of inducing permanent focal ischemia that is commonly used as a rodent stroke model. To perform DMCAO a temporal craniotomy is performed, and the middle cerebral ar ...

Vascular dementia or vascular cognitive impairment occurs as a result of persistently compromised blood flow to the brain and represents the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. In order to investigate its underlying mechanisms, a mouse model of chronic cereb ...

Transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) in rodents is one of the most widely utilized models in experimental stroke studies on focal cerebral ischemia. tMCAO can be modeled in different ways, all aimed at mimicking the clinical scenario of early reperfusion after an ischemic in ...

Chronic exposure to moderate hypoxia elicits structural and functional changes in the microvascular network of the mammalian CNS. Hypoxia-induced angiogenesis can be elicited and studied by a relatively simple experimental method. Rats or mice can be exposed to mild hypoxia in a hypob ...

In order to study basic mechanisms of sprouting angiogenesis, researchers worldwide rely on the use of model tissues such as rodent retina, which becomes vascularized postnatally, to study the growth of blood vessels. By definition, models have to be simple, recapitulating angiogenic pr ...

Capillary growth and expansion (angiogenesis) is a prerequisite for many forms of neural and behavioral plasticity. It is commonly observed in both brain and muscle of aerobically exercising animals. As such, several histological methods have been used to quantify capillary density, ...

Unilateral common carotid artery occlusion (CCAO) is a standardized method to initiate collateral artery growth (arteriogenesis) in mouse brain. After CCAO is induced, blood circulation in the circle of Willis is changed and increases shear stress, which triggers increased arteri ...

Vessel painting is a simple, cost-effective way to visualize the vascular architecture of the mouse brain and other organs. DiI is a lipophilic carbocyanine dye that binds to lipid membranes and is commonly used for tract tracing in the brain. After perfusion with PBS to remove the blood, perfusion ...

The four-vessel occlusion (4-VO) method of global forebrain cerebral ischemia mimics the human clinical condition of cardiac arrest. It results in selective neuronal damage and is a useful experimental system to dissect underlying mechanisms behind ischemic phenomena such as the di ...

The TNF superfamily member TWEAK has emerged as a pleiotropic cytokine that regulates many cellular functions that include immune/inflammatory activity, angiogenesis, cell proliferation, and fate. TWEAK through its inducible receptor, FGF-inducible molecule 14 (Fn14), can i ...

Current antiangiogenic therapies have led to the observation that such agents can lead to improved tumor vessel structure and function termed “vascular normalization” which reduces tumor burden. However, vessel normalization is a transient process, and patients often develop re ...

Angiogenesis, the sprouting of new capillaries from existing blood vessels, accompanies clinical and experimental stroke and is focused particularly in the salvageable ischemic border zone. As this endogenous angiogenic response correlates positively with clinical prog ...

Blood vessels provide the brain with the oxygen and the nutrients it requires to develop and function. Endothelial cells (ECs) are the principal cell type forming the vascular system and driving its development and remodeling. All vessels are lined by a single EC layer. Larger blood vessels are ad ...

Optical near-fields can be employed for a wide range of applications, e.g., light localization, light scattering, and field enhancement. In this chapter the principles of near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) will be outlined. The basic idea of this technique is the extension of the b ...

The resolution of far-field fluorescence microscopy is limited by the Abbe diffraction limit. Making use of the moir� effect, structured illumination microscopy circumvents this limit by projecting fine patterns of light into the sample. From several diffraction limited raw images ...

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy techniques have paved the way to address cell biological questions with unprecedented spatial resolution. Of these, three-dimensional structured illumination microscopy (3D-SIM) reaches a nearly eightfold increased volum ...

We review single-molecule localization microscopy techniques with a focus on computational techniques and algorithms necessary for their use. The most common approach to single-molecule localization, Gaussian fitting at positions pre-estimated from local maxima, is illus ...