We present methods based on Optical Coherence Tomography to quantify longitudinal changes in murine cortical vasculature. To demonstrate our methods, we tracked age-related changes in vascular structure and function of 3xTg Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and age-matched wild-type (WT) mice over the course of 7 months. In total, we measured 27 longitudinal parameters related to the morphology, topology, and function of the cortical vasculature across all scales: large pial vessels, penetrating vessels, and capillaries. Ten of these parameters showed different time-courses between AD and WT mice, with significant alterations preceding the onset of cognitive decline.
|