Measurement of cerebral oxygen pressure in living mice by two-photon phosphorescence lifetime microscopy

The ability to quantify partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) is of primary importance for studies of metabolic processes in health and disease. Here, we present a protocol for imaging of oxygen distributions in tissue and vasculature of the cerebral cortex of anesthetized and awake mice. We describe in vivo two-photon phosphorescence lifetime microscopy (2PLM) of oxygen using the probe Oxyphor 2P. This minimally invasive protocol outperforms existing approaches in terms of accuracy, resolution, and imaging depth.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Esipova et al. (2019).

Automated summary

This article presents a protocol for imaging oxygen distributions in the tissue and vasculature of the cerebral cortex in mice, both under anesthesia and awake. The protocol uses a two-photon phosphorescence lifetime microscopy (2PLM) approach with the probe Oxyphor 2P. This minimally invasive method outperforms existing approaches in terms of accuracy, resolution, and imaging depth. For a complete understanding of the protocol, please refer to Esipova et al. (2019).