Understanding vascular and cellular activity during cerebral stroke in zebrafish model using swept-source optical coherence tomography/angiography (SSOCT/A)

Abstract

We present a non-invasive study of the zebrafish brain to understand the vasculature and changing cellular dynamics in the cerebral stroke model using swept-source optical coherence tomography/angiography (SSOCT/A). An ischemic stroke is caused by reduced or obstructed blood supply in the brain, eventually leading to cell death due to insufficient oxygen and nutrient levels. The aberrant/anomalous blood flow characteristics in ischemic stroke are analyzed by phase variance and the doppler method using SSOCT. The subsequent cell mortality is monitored using the speckle-contrast technique of SSOCT. The SSOCT technique for disease surveillance provides fast acquisition time, reduced motion artifacts, label-free visualization, and non-invasive examination.