Local oxygen concentration reversal from hyperoxia to hypoxia monitored by optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy in inflammation-resolution process

Current consensus suggests a simultaneous occurrence of hypoxia and inflammation. For the first time, we observed a hyperoxia state during the initiation stage of gouty arthritis (GA) via optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy. GA as a paradigm of acute sterile inflammation, has been regarded as a single process. However, our experimental results demonstrated that the onset-resolution inflammation process composed of two sub-processes with different features. In the initial sub-process, inflammation and resolution events appear in hyperoxia state (1st-5th days). In the subsequent sub-process, post-resolution events appear in hypoxia state (6th-15th days), which is related with the second wave of immune response. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the inflammatory cytokines together with hyperoxia levels in initial sub-process can be downregulated by photobiomodulation, resulting in the hypoxia levels in subsequent sub-process were inhibited. Our results unveiled the detailed progress of GA and provided potential non-invasive monitoring and treatment strategies.