University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Neuroscience

Isolation and Cannulation of Cerebral Parenchymal Arterioles

Paulo W. Pires¹, Fabrice Dabertrand², Scott Earley¹

¹Department of Pharmacology, University of Nevada School of Medicine, ²Department of Pharmacology, University of Vermont College of Medicine

This manuscript describes a simple and reproducible protocol for isolation of intracerebral arterioles (a group of blood vessels encompassing parenchymal arterioles, penetrating arterioles and pre-capillary arterioles) from mice, to be used in pressure myography, immunofluorescence, biochemistry, and molecular studies.

Biology

Isolation and Functional Analysis of Arteriolar Endothelium of Mouse Brain Parenchyma

Md A. Hakim¹, Paulo W. Pires², Erik J. Behringer¹

¹Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University, ²Departments of Physiology, Surgery and Neurosurgery and Sarver Heart Center, University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson

Intensive preparation of intact mouse cerebral endothelial "tubes" from cerebral parenchymal arterioles is illustrated for studying cerebral blood flow regulation. Further, we demonstrate the experimental strengths of this endothelial study model for fluorescence imaging and electrophysiology measurement of key cellular signaling pathways, including changes in intracellular [Ca²⁺] and membrane potential.