Multiphoton microscopy as a tool to study ovarian vasculature in vivo

To better understand the vascular changes that occur in the ovarian follicle around the time of ovulation, we developed a novel procedure to determine blood flow in the follicle-associated microvasculature in vivo using multiphoton microscopy and verified that this procedure is compatible with ovulation. This procedure will be useful to characterize vascular events in ovaries of wild-type mice as well as various strains of genetically altered mice with anovulatory phenotypes. Understanding the mechanism of ovulation is important to treat human infertility, develop contraceptive methods and manage reproductive traits in domestic and endangered wild life species.