Data from: Rat retinal vasomotion assessed by laser speckle imaging

Vasomotion is spontaneous or induced rhythmic changes in vascular tone or
vessel diameter that lead to rhythmic changes in flow. While the vascular
research community debates the physiological and pathophysiological
consequence of vasomotion, there is a great need for experimental
techniques that can address the role and dynamical properties of
vasomotion in vivo. We apply laser speckle imaging to study spontaneous
and drug induced vasomotion in retinal network of anesthetized rats. The
results reveal a wide variety of dynamical patterns. Wavelet-based
analysis shows that (i) spontaneous vasomotion occurs in anesthetized
animals and (ii) vasomotion can be initiated by systemic administration of
the thromboxane analogue U-46619 and the nitric-oxide donor
S-nitroso-acetylDL-penicillamine (SNAP). Although these drugs activate
different cellular pathways responsible for vasomotion, our approach can
track the dynamical changes they cause.