Here we describe a method to directly visualize microregional tissue hypoxia in the mouse cortex in vivo. It is based on concurrent two-photon imaging of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and the cortical microcirculation. This method is useful for high resolution analysis of tissue oxygen supply.
Polesskaya, O., Sun, A., Salahura, G., Silva, J. N., Dewhurst, S., Kasischke, K. Detection of Microregional Hypoxia in Mouse Cerebral Cortex by Two-photon Imaging of Endogenous NADH Fluorescence. J. Vis. Exp. (60), e3466, doi:10.3791/3466 (2012).