Microscope-based near-infrared stereo-imaging system for quantifying the motion of the murine epicardial coronary arteries in vivo.

Atherosclerosis is a leading cause of mortality in industrialized countries. In addition to “traditional” systemic risk factors for atherosclerosis, the geometry and motion of coronary arteries may contribute to individual susceptibility to the development and progression of disease in these vessels. To be able to test this, we have developed a high-speed (∼ 40 frames per second) microscope-based stereo-imaging system to quantify the motion of epicardial coronary arteries of mice. Using near-infrared nontargeted quantum dots as an imaging contrast agent, we synchronously acquired paired images of a surgically exposed murine heart, from which the three-dimensional geometry of the coronary arteries was reconstructed. The reconstructed geometry was tracked frame by frame through the cardiac cycle to quantify the in vivo motion of the vessel, from which displacements, curvature, and torsion parameters were derived. Illustrative results for a C57BL/6J mouse are presented.