Blood cell assisted in vivo Particle Image Velocimetry using the confocal laser scanning microscope

We demonstrated the feasibility of blood cell assisted in vivo Particle Image Velocimetry using confocal microscopy. Blood flow of skin vessel in a mouse was non-invasively imaged in vivo using a confocal microscopy. The video-rate confocal microscope was used to monitor the motion of the blood cells in the capillary of a live mouse ear. The home-built confocal laser scanning microscopy allowed us to take images at the acquisition rate of 30 frames per second. The individual blood cells could be distinguished from other cells and the trajectory of the each cell could be followed in the sequential images. The acquired confocal images were used to get the velocity profile of the in vivo blood flow in conjunction with the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), without injecting any exogenous nano/micro particles into the mouse. We were able to measure the blood velocity up to a few hundreds mu m/sec for various vessels in a live mouse. Because there is no need for the injection of the exogenous tracing particles, it is expected that we could apply the current technology to the study of human capillary blood stream. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America