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Updated: Jun 21, 2026
Ischemic Tissue Injury in the Dorsal Skinfold Chamber of the Mouse: A Skin Flap Model to Investigate Acute Persistent Ischemia
Published on: November 17, 2014
Perfusion in hamster skin treated with glycerol
Raiyan T Zaman1, Ashwin B Parthasarathy, Gracie Vargas
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, 1 University Station C0800, BME 1.344, Austin, TX 78712-0238, USA. raiyan_zaman@yahoo.com
Background And Objective:
The objective of this article is to quantify the effect of hyper-osmotic agent (glycerol) on blood velocity in hamster skin blood vessels measured with a dynamic imaging technique, laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI).
Study Design/Materials And Methods:
In this study a dorsal skin-flap window was implanted on the hamster skin. The hyper-osmotic drug, that is, glycerol was delivered to the skin through the open dermal end of the window model. A two-dimensional map of blood flow of skin blood vessels was obtained from the speckle contrast (SC) images.
Results:
Preliminary studies demonstrated that hyper-osmotic agents such as glycerol not only make tissue temporarily transparent, but also reduce blood flow. The blood perfusion was measured every 3 minutes for 36-66 minutes after diffusion of anhydrous glycerol. Blood flow in small capillaries was found to be reduced significantly within 3-9 minutes. Blood flow in larger blood vessels (i.e., all arteries and veins) decreased over time and some veins had significantly reduced blood flow within 36 minutes. At 24 hours, there was a further reduction in capillary blood perfusion whereas larger blood vessels regained flow compared to an hour after initial application of glycerol.
Conclusion:
Blood flow velocity and vessel diameter of the micro-vasculatures of hamster skin were reduced by the application of 100% anhydrous glycerol. At 24 hours, capillary perfusion remained depressed.
