2光子顕微鏡を用いた脳イメージング
In vivo imaging of brain using two-photon microscopy

To deeply understand the phenomena occurring within the brain, it is necessary to observe the brain of living animals. The two-photon microscopy, which is newly developed fluorescent microscopy, is the appropriate technique for observation of the phenomena with submicron resolution because of its characteristics, such as low-invasiveness and deep tissue penetration. Combining this technique and several transgenic mice which express fluorescent protein in specific cells and fluorescent dyes, we can observe not only the microstructure of neurons (excitatory and inhibitory neurons) and glial cells (microglia and astrocytes) but also activities of these cells. In addition, we can also observe dynamic blood flow of blood vessels in the cortex. In this presentation, I will introduce our recent study about the effect of hindpaw chronic pain on the activity of somatosensory cortex using in vivo two-photon microscopy.