Intravital Microscopy to Study Platelet-Leukocyte-Endothelial Interactions in the Mouse Liver

Inflammation and thrombosis are complex processes that occur primarily in the microcirculation. Although standard histology may provide insight into the end pathway for both inflammation and thrombosis, it is not capable of showing the temporal changes that occur throughout the time course of these processes. Intravital microscopy (IVM) is the use of live-animal imaging to gain temporal insight into physiologic processes in vivo. This method is particularly powerful when assessing cellular and protein interactions within the circulation due to the rapid and sequential events that are often necessary for these interactions to occur. While IVM is an extremely powerful imaging methodology capable of viewing complex processes in vivo, there are a number of methodological factors that are important to consider when planning an IVM study. This paper outlines the process of conducting intravital imaging of the liver, identifying important considerations and potential pitfalls that may arise. Thus, this paper describes the use of IVM to study platelet-leukocyte-endothelial interactions in liver sinusoids to study the relative contributions of each in different models of acute liver injury.