Intravital microscopy in the context of Transgene

⭐ Core Definition: Intravital microscopy

Intravital microscopy is a form of microscopy that allows observing biological processes in live animals (in vivo) at a high resolution that makes distinguishing between individual cells of a tissue possible.

In mammals, in some experimental settings a surgical implantation of an imaging window is performed prior to intravital microscopy. This allows repeated observations over several days or weeks. For example, if researchers want to visualize liver cells of a live mouse they will implant an imaging window into mouse's abdomen.Mice are the most common choice of animals for intravital microscopy but in special cases other rodents such as rats might be more suitable. Animals are usually anesthetized throughout surgeries and imaging sessions.Intravital microscopy is used in several areas of research including neurology, immunology, stem cell studies and others. This technique is particularly useful to assess a progression of a disease or an effect of a drug.

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Intravital microscopy in the context of Vascular permeability

Vascular permeability, often in the form of capillary permeability or microvascular permeability, characterizes the permeability of a blood vessel wall–in other words, the blood vessel wall's capacity to allow for the flow of small molecules (such as drugs, nutrients, water, or ions) or even whole cells (such as lymphocytes on their way to a site of inflammation) in and out of the vessel. Blood vessel walls are lined by a single layer of endothelial cells. The gaps between endothelial cells (cell junctions) are strictly regulated depending on the type and physiological state of the tissue.

There are several techniques to measure vascular permeability to certain molecules. For instance, the cannulation of a single microvessel with a micropipette: the microvessel is perfused with a certain pressure, occluded downstream, and then the velocity of some cells will be related to the permeability. Another technique uses multiphoton fluorescence intravital microscopy through which the flow is related to fluorescence intensity and the permeability is estimated from the Patlak transformation.

View the full Wikipedia page for Vascular permeability

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Intravital microscopy in the context of Transgene

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⭐ Core Definition: Intravital microscopy

Intravital microscopy in the context of Vascular permeability