Dorsal skinfold chamber preparation in mice : studying angiogenesis by intravital microscopy

Since 1924, when the first transparent chamber model in animals was introduced by Sandison (1), many other chamber models have been described in the literature for studying angiogenesis and microcirculation in a wide variety of neoplastic and nonneoplastic tissues by means of intravital microscopy (for reviews see 2-4). Because angiogenesis is an active and dynamic process, one of the major strengths of chamber models is the possibility of monitoring angiogenesis in vivo continuously up to several weeks with high spatial and temporal resolution. In addition, after the termination of experiments, tissue samples can be excised easily and further examined by various in vitro methods (e.g., histology, immuno-histochemistry, and molecular biology).