Description:

“Microvascular oxygen delivery in the cortical territories supplied by the distal arteriolar branches”
 

ABSTRACT: 

Brain territories supplied by the distal arteriolar branches, such as subcortical white matter and watershed territories, are frequently associated with an increased neuronal injury due to various brain conditions (e.g., small vessel diseases and brain ischemia). We applied several optical microscopy techniques to investigate microvascular blood flow and oxygenation in arterioles, venules, and capillaries in mice in the brain territories supplied by both proximal and distal arteriolar branches. Our results imply that microvascular blood flow in subcortical white matter and watershed territories, when compared to the central territory of the cortical arteriolar supply, responds differently and with signs of an increased vulnerability to several important perturbations such as global ischemia, normal aging with or without exercise, or simply a phase of the circadian clock. These findings and applied techniques are opening novel research opportunities that will help us better understand the relation between the development of brain pathology in some important brain conditions and anatomical organization and regulation of the microvascular blood supply.

BIOGRAPHY: 

Dr. Sakadzic is an Associate Professor of Radiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and co-director of the Optics Group at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. He obtained his Ph.D. with Dr. Lihong Wang at Texas A&M University and completed his postdoctoral training with Dr. David Boas at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Sakadzic’s group is developing novel optical microscopy imaging technologies and utilizing them to investigate cerebral and retinal oxygen delivery and consumption on microvascular scales. The goals of these research efforts are to better understand neurovascular coupling in health and disease, to facilitate improvement and development of treatments of brain conditions, and to enable new imaging biomarkers and more quantitative interpretation of macroscopic imaging modalities.