Label-free optical control of arterial contraction

The diameters of blood vessels, especially in the brain, change dynamically over time to provide sufficient blood supply as needed. No existing technique allows noninvasive control of vascular diameter in vivo. We report that label-free irradiation with a femtosecond pulsed laser can trigger blood vessel contraction in vivo. In response to laser irradiation, cultured vascular smooth muscle cells showed a rapid increase in calcium concentration, followed by cell contraction. In a murine thinned skull window model, laser irradiation focused in the arterial vessel wall caused localized vascular contraction, followed by recovery. The nonlinear nature of the pulsed laser allowed highly specific targeting of subcortical vessels without affecting the surrounding region. We believe that femtosecond pulsed laser irradiation will become a useful experimental tool in the field of vascular biology.