Intravital Imaging of Thrombus Formation in Small and Large Mouse Arteries: Experimentally Induced Vascular Damage and Plaque Rupture In Vivo

Intravital fluorescence microscopy is increasingly used to measure experimental arterial thrombosis in large and small arteries of mice in vivo. This chapter describes protocols for applying this technology to detect and measure thrombi formed by: (1) ultrasound-induced rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque in the carotid artery of adult Apoe ^−/− mice; (2) FeCl₃ or ligation in the carotid artery of nonatherosclerotic mice; and (3) FeCl₃ in the mesenteric venules and arterioles of young mice. In addition, we describe a protocol using two-photon laser scanning microscopy for intraluminal scanning of thrombi formed in the carotid artery. These approaches provide important information that cannot be obtained with ex vivo methods and thus are likely to lead to new insights into the complex process of thrombosis.