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(Circulation Research. 2007;100:e82.)
© 2007 American Heart Association, Inc.

Letter to the Editor

Exact Assessment of Perfusion and Collateral Vessel Proliferation in Small Animal Models

Anja Bondke, Philipp Hillmeister, Ivo R. Buschmann

Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Center for Internal, Medicine (CC13), Cardiology, Gastroenterology and, Nephrology, Research Group for Experimental and Clinical, Arteriogenesis, Charité Center for Cardiovascular Research, Berlin, Germany

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

To the Editor:

Exact quantification of blood flow restoration and neovascularization poses a significant challenge, especially in small animal models. Although descriptive as well as functional methods of assessment exist, perfusion measurement has become a key point of current angiogenesis/arteriogenesis and stem cells studies. Cheng et al, in their recent article,¹ provide interesting data on the role of MMP-2 in ischemic angiogenesis. Considerable efforts are made to correlate angiographic collateral imaging with perfusion as assessed by laser Doppler flowmetry in a murine MMP-2^–/– hindlimb model. However, the article raises important technical questions regarding the exact quantification of blood flow restoration and neovascularization.

First, in Figure 3, the authors¹ compare microangiographies from MMP-2^–/– mice to wild-type controls. The resolution obtained seems insufficient for quantitative analysis. Although the MMP-2^–/– phenotype (Figure 3A) is associated with lesser numbers of vascular connections (Figure 3A upper versus lower left), differences between unaffected and affected limbs in wild type controls are hardly discernible (Figure 3A upper left versus right). Although "collateral vessel formation" is being described, no typical collateral vessel morphology such as distinctive "corkscrew patterns"² are detectable in the angiographies presented.

When choosing time points for angiographic collateral vessel imaging, it would be interesting to learn if the effects of "pruning" have been taken into account, as the number of collateral vessels detectable depends on the time interval after femoral artery ligation, their absolute numbers decreasing over time³ because of the rarefication process collateral vessels undergo once their growth stimuli decrease.

Second, laser Doppler flowmetry . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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