(Stroke. 2008;39:198.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.
Original Contributions |
From the Cerebral Vascular Disease Research Center, Department of Neurology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Fla, USA.
Correspondence to Myron D. Ginsberg, MD, Department of Neurology (D4-5), University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, PO Box 016960, Miami, FL 33101. E-mail mginsberg{at}med.miami.edu
| Abstract |
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Methods— The cortical microcirculation of anesthetized, physiologically monitored Sprague-Dawley rats was studied in vivo via a frontoparietal cranial window (intact dura) by two-photon laser-scanning microscopy after plasma-labeling with fluorescein-dextran. Focal thrombosis was produced in 30- to 50-µm cortical arterioles by laser irradiation. Arteriolar flow velocity was measured repeatedly by line-scanning. At 30 minutes post-thrombosis, animals were treated with either human albumin, 2 g/kg, or with saline control.
Results— Baseline arteriolar flow velocity averaged 3.5±1.8 mm/s and was reduced to 10% to 13% of control values by laser-induced thrombosis, which also led to focal vasodilatation (mean, 49% above baseline diameter). Saline treatment at 30 minutes post-thrombosis failed to influence arteriolar flow velocity, which remained depressed at 10% to 22% of control throughout the subsequent 60- to 90-minute observation period. By contrast, albumin treatment induced a prompt rise in median flow velocity to 38% of control by 10 minutes post-treatment, and to 61% to 67% of control by 50 to 60 minutes.
Conclusions— High-dose albumin therapy induces a prompt, sustained improvement in microvascular hemodynamics distal to a cortical arteriolar thrombosis; these data support an important intravascular component to albumins protective effect in acute cerebral ischemia.
Key Words: albumin flow velocity microcirculation rat thrombotic stroke two-photon microscopy
| Introduction |
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We believe that the neuroprotective efficacy of albumin is attributable to its multifunctional properties.2 These include not only hemodilution and oncotic effects but also its antioxidant action, binding of copper ions, fatty-acid transport, and, importantly, a variety of intravascular actions. The latter include salutary interactions with vascular endothelium,6 platelet antiaggregatory effects,7 antagonism of erythrocyte sedimentation in low-flow states,8 reaction with nitric oxide to form a stable S-nitrosothiol with endothelium-derived relaxing factor-like properties,9 and antagonism of the binding of activated neutrophils to endothelial cells in response to inflammatory stimuli.10 In the ALIAS pilot clinical trial, subjects who received thrombolysis (IV tissue plasminogen activator) plus high-dose albumin were twice as likely to attain a favorable neurological outcome at 3 months than did tissue plasminogen activator–treated subjects who received lower-dose albumin.4 This result suggests that albumin therapy might act to maintain microvascular patency and retard reocclusion after thrombolysis.
In a previous study in rats with middle cerebral artery suture-occlusion, we used laser-scanning confocal microscopy to study the superficial cortical microcirculation in relation to ischemia, reperfusion, and albumin therapy.11 During the first 15 to 30 minutes of postischemic recirculation, we observed prominent foci of vascular stagnation within cortical venules, which were associated with thrombus-like aggregates and probable neutrophil adhesion. Albumin therapy promptly improved venular and capillary perfusion and led to partial disappearance of adherent thrombotic material, whereas saline (control) therapy failed to have an effect.11
The present study was designed to characterize further the microvascular actions of albumin in a model of primary cortical microvascular thrombotic injury, utilizing the powerful method of two-photon laser-scanning excitation fluorescence microscopy (TPLSM). This method possesses numerous advantages over confocal microscopy—increased depth of tissue penetration, higher image contrast, and less photobleaching and photodamage to tissue. In this report, we describe a marked beneficial effect of human albumin therapy in improving microvascular flow velocity distal to laser-induced cortical arteriolar thrombosis in rats.
| Materials and Methods |
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After catheterization, the animal was placed in a stereotactic frame and the head was immobilized with ear- and tooth-bars. A linear midline scalp incision was made, and the periosteum was removed from the skull until the suture markings were clearly identified. Hemostasis was established in the soft tissues with monopolar cautery, and in the bone by Gelfoam strips. A cranial window (4x4 mm) was created over the right or left frontoparietal cortex with the use of a drill (Leutor MiniGold power unit, Japan). The anterior and posterior margins of the cranial window were delimited by the coronal suture and lambdoid suture, respectively; the medial margin was marked by the sagittal suture, and the lateral limit by the curve of the cranium from the horizontal to the vertical plane. The dura was kept intact. The animal was then transferred to the stage of the two-photon microscope, and the stereotactic frame was attached to the microscope stage. The cranial defect was filled with artificial cerebrospinal fluid, and the temperature of the cerebrospinal fluid pool was monitored. The objective lens of the microscope was surrounded by coils of PE tubing through which water at 58°C was circulated; this helped to transfer heat to the cranium throughout the duration of the experiment to stabilize cranial temperature.
Two-Photon Laser-Scanning Microscopy System
The TPLSM system used in this study consisted of 3 major components:
Induction of Microvascular Thrombosis, Treatment, and Data Acquisition
The cortical microvasculature was imaged after plasma-labeling with fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran (70 kDa;
0.7 mg/kg IV). A central microscopic field within the frontoparietal craniotomy was identified by TPLSM and the local vascular architecture inspected. Next, a single medium-sized cortical arteriole (subsurface depth 10 to 20 µm) was selected at 20x magnification for subsequent study and was confirmed by its typical size (30- to 50-µm diameter; Figures 1 and 2
) and its very rapid flow-velocity profile (Figure 3). The selected arteriole was imaged via z-scans performed at 1-µm intervals (Figure 1). Flow velocity was determined as previously described12 by repetitive line-scans performed along the central longitudinal axis of the selected arteriole (512x512-pixel field; spatial dimension
1 µm/pixel; temporal dimension, 2 ms/pixel). The linear shadows produced by nonfluorescent particles within the plasma stream permitted computation of arteriolar flow velocity, which was proportional to the slope
x/
t (Figure 3).
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To produce localized vascular injury to this arteriole, we used the method of Nishimura et al.13 A segment of the arteriole of interest was selected at the maximal optical zoom setting for laser-irradiation at the two-photon wavelength of 800 nm. Irradiation intensity (W/cm2) was set according to the vessel diameter. The vessel was then irradiated over a period of
5 minutes. Laser pulses (800-nm wavelength; energy, 264 watts) were delivered to a
35x70-µm rectangular target aligned along the arterioles longitudinal axis (via the 20x microscope objective at 10x optical zoom) to induce a thrombus occupying the entire luminal cross-section. The onset of thrombosis was identified by the dilatation of the irradiated segment, the emergence of bright fluorescence along the vessel wall, and by a nonfluorescent mass within the irradiated arteriole (Figure 1). The laser pulse energy was held beneath the level needed to induce dye extravasation and vessel rupture.13 If vascular rupture occurred, the animal was discarded from the series.
Animals with successful arteriolar thrombosis were then randomly allocated by coin toss to treatment with either 25% ALB, 2.5 g/kg (Baxter Bioscience; n=8), or a comparable volume of isotonic saline (n=6). This treatment (IV infusion over 3 minutes) was begun at 30 minutes after vascular injury. Microvascular flow velocity in the arteriolar segment immediately distal to thrombosis was determined in all rats by successive line-scans beginning 10 minutes before injury and at subsequent 5-minute intervals throughout the 30-minute post-thrombosis pretreatment period, and for at least 60 minutes after treatment. In 5 ALB-treated rats and 5 saline-treated rats, post-treatment scans were continued out to 90 minutes. Z-scan images of the arteriole and its injury-site were performed immediately before injury, at 30 minutes postinjury, and at the end of the 60- or 90-minute post-treatment observation period. The resultant images were subjected to close inspection during the study and were stored for later visual analysis by means of Image ProPlus software.
| Results |
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Microvascular Morphology
Typical cortical arterioles selected for study are shown in Figures 1 and 2
. They exhibited occasional branching (Figure 2). Baseline arteriolar diameter for the series was 33.2±7.7 µm (mean±SD). Successful thrombus induction was signaled by dark focal interruptions of intravascular FITC fluorescence, often rimmed by bright fluorescence accumulations in the overlying walls of the dilated arteriole (Figure 1). The diameter of the thrombosed arteriole increased to 49.5±15.7 µm, or 49% above baseline. At the end of the post-treatment observation period, arteriolar diameter in the ALB group had increased by 12±2% above the immediate pretreatment value; in the saline group, this increase was 9±5% (P=not significant). In most animals, treatment with ALB or saline failed to influence the microscopic morphology of the occluded arteriole, which remained grossly unchanged throughout the post-treatment observation period. In other instances (Figure 2), ALB treatment was associated with subtle focal morphological changes.
Arteriolar Flow-Velocity Measurements
Figure 3 illustrates line-scans used to measure arteriolar flow velocity. At baseline before induction of thrombosis, mean arteriolar flow velocity was identical in the ALB and saline groups: ALB, 3.4±1.7 mm/s (mean±SD, n=8); saline, 3.6±1.8 mm/s (n=6). Subsequent flow-velocity measurements in each rat were normalized to that animals baseline value. After induction of arteriolar thrombosis, median flow velocity distal to the thrombus declined precipitously (ALB group, 10.4% of control; saline group, 13.1% of control; P=not significant, Mann-Whitney test) and remained steady throughout the subsequent 30 minutes (Figure 4).
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Saline treatment failed to influence arteriolar flow velocity, which remained constant at median values of 10% to 22% of control throughout the subsequent 60 to 90-minute observation period (Figures 4 and 5
). By contrast, in ALB-treated rats, median flow velocity rose to 38% of control within 10 minutes of ALB administration. By 50 to 60 minutes after ALB treatment, median flow velocity had risen to 61% to 67% of control (Figures 4 and 6
). The time-course of arteriolar flow-velocity measurements, together with z-scan images, are depicted for a representative saline-treated and ALB-treated rat in Figures 5 and 6
, respectively.
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| Discussion |
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The present results are consonant with the salutary intravascular action of ALB in reversing postischemic venular thrombosis observed in our previous confocal-microscopic study of middle cerebral artery suture-occlusion11 (described in the Introduction). Furthermore, they lend support to the speculative hypothesis generated by the efficacy-analysis of our recently published ALIAS pilot clinical trial: namely, that a prominent component of albumins protective effect is mediated within in the vascular compartment and may relate to an antithrombotic action that helps to loosen microvascular thrombi and to retard reocclusion after pharmacological thrombolysis.4 We have demonstrated a flow-enhancing role of ALB in previous studies by means of autoradiography14 and laser Doppler flowmetry.11,15
TPLSM differs from confocal microscopy in that it is a nonlinear approach that depends on the excitation of a fluorophore by 2 photons arriving within an extraordinarily narrow time window (
10–18 seconds). Two-photon fluorescence excitation is confined to a small zone within the focal plane where the photon-density is high16,17; and the deep red or near-infrared excitation wavelengths used in TPLSM penetrate tissue better than the visible wavelengths used in confocal microscopy.17 Thus, the advantages of two-photon over confocal microscopy are the far greater depth of tissue penetration (up to
500 µm or more), greater light collection efficiency, the confining of photobleaching and photodamage to the imaged zone, higher resolution, and higher contrast.16,17 In addition, two-photon excitation at a single wavelength can stimulate fluorescence emission in fluorophores having a broad range of excitation maxima, permitting multiple fluorophores to be imaged simultaneously. TPLSM has been successfully applied in vivo to study tumorigenesis,18 and the evolution of senile plaques19 and amyloid deposition20 in models of Alzheimer disease.
Several authors have used TPLSM to study anoxic or hypoglycemic hippocampal slice preparations (eg, dendritic reorganization,21 synaptic spine alterations denoting plasticity,22 hypoxic tolerance,23 and protection conferred by microglial activation24). However, only 2 published studies have applied TPLSM in vivo to whole-animal studies of cerebral ischemia: Nishimura et al13 used TPSLM to produce 3 gradations of microvascular injury: frank rupture with local hemorrhage, intravascular clot (resembling the methods of our study), and extravasation of blood components at the lowest energies. In a report from the same group,25 TPLSM was used to study hemodynamics in penetrating cerebral arterioles that were occluded via rose-bengal photochemistry. Other workers, however, have used the related methods of intravital high-speed confocal and widefield microscopy with great success to study, in real-time, the roles of platelets, blood coagulation products, endothelium and vessel wall in the process of thrombus formation in the mouse cremaster muscle preparation.26–28
In summary, the present study has used two-photon microscopy to provide evidence that human albumin administration beneficially influences microvascular hemodynamics in a model of nonthrombolysed microvascular thrombosis. These results add further evidence supporting the neuroprotective potential of albumin therapy in ischemic stroke.
| Acknowledgments |
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This study was supported by NIH grants NS05820 and NS46295.
Disclosures
None.
Received June 5, 2007; accepted June 12, 2007.
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