Diffuse optical monitoring of repeated cerebral ischemia in mice

Occlusions of bilateral common carotid arteries (bi-CCA) in mice are popular models for the investigation of transient forebrain ischemia. Currently available technologies for assessing cerebral blood flow (CBF) and oxygenation in ischemic mice have limitations. This study tests a novel near-infrared diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) flow-oximeter for monitoring both CBF and cerebral oxygenation in mice undergoing repeated transient forebrain ischemia. Concurrent flow measurements in a mouse brain were first conducted for validation purposes; DCS measurement was found highly correlated with laser Doppler measurement (R² = 0.94) and less susceptible to motion artifacts. With unique designs in experimental protocols and fiber-optic probes, we have demonstrated high sensitivities of DCS flow-oximeter in detecting the regional heterogeneity of CBF responses in different hemispheres and global changes of both CBF and cerebral oxygenation across two hemispheres in mice undergoing repeated 2-minute bi-CCA occlusions over 5 days. More than 75% CBF reductions were found during bi-CCA occlusions in mice, which may be considered as a threshold to determine a successful bi-CCA occlusion. With the progress of repeated 2-minute bi-CCA occlusions over days, a longitudinal decline in the magnitudes of CBF reduction was observed, indicating the brain adaptation to cerebral ischemia through the repeated preconditioning.