Vascular Imaging Using Confocal Microscopy

Abstract

Blood vessels are dynamic structures and capable of structural changes in response to various challenges, which is called vascular remodeling. Since vascular remodeling is important for cardiovascular pathophysiology, monitoring of structural changes of blood vessels has been drawn attention. Physiological methods allow gross vessel structure identification at physiological conditions, but technical constraints limit the analysis of detailed structure of blood vessels. For an analysis of blood vessels and its interaction to periendothelial cells, visualization of intact blood vessels with various thicknesses is critical. Recent development of confocal microscopy enables us to reveal three-dimensional structures of specimens by analyzing relatively thick specimens with optical sectioning. Especially the three-dimensional visualization combined with multi-fluorescent immunohistochemistry technique reveals the detailed structures of blood vessels as well as interactions between endothelial cells and periendothelial cells. Here we will discuss the application of confocal microscopy to imaging of blood vessels.