Figure 1. Mild blast exposure causes dynamic microdomains of blood-brain barrier disruption.

Real-time two-photon intravital imaging revealed that peripherally injected intravascular Quantum dots₆₅₅ were restricted to the microvessels of sham-treated control mice. The perpendicular slice (indicated by a dashed green line) through the cortex is shown in the lower panels to further confirm that the QDots₆₅₅ remained inside both pial vessels and microvessels deeper in the cortical parenchyma. Imaging was begun 45 minutes after a single mild BOP, a microdomain of vascular disruption can be seen where QDots₆₅₅ escaped the endothelium into the surrounding parenchyma and accumulated in the subpial Virchow-Robin space (white arrowhead). A second microdomain developed 105 minutes after blast exposure (green arrowhead). The image represents the largest field of view common to all frames with slight formatting adjustments. Scale bars: 50 μm.