Toward accurate cerebral blood flow estimation in mice after accounting for anesthesia

CBF measurements in mice were often confounded by the utilizations of anesthesia, which are generally vasoactive. Here, we aimed to systematically understand the relationships between CBF and related physiological factors, not only the anesthesia dose but also respiratory rate (RR), heart rate (HR), and exposure time to anesthesia. We found that CBF measurements in mice were affected by anesthesia dose and time, but can be corrected by using respiratory rate and heart rate. The correction scheme will facilitate applications of CBF measurements in mechanistic understanding of vascular diseases and preclinical therapeutic trials by providing anesthesia-independent CBF measurements.