Developmental facilitation of the midbrain blood flow.

<p>(A) Representative spatial maps of blood flow velocity in a half midbrain vasculature of a larva at 2.0 dpf (left) and 7.0 dpf (right). The white arrows indicate the direction of blood flow in each vessel segment examined, and the red lines with an arrowhead at each end show bi-directional flow (asterisk). The large yellow arrows indicate the blood flow input from the BCA. The velocities were color-coded. The white lines indicate the segments to which line scanning was inaccessible (<a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001374#s4" target="_blank">Materials and Methods</a>). The white dots represent branch points between the CVP and midbrain vessel segments. (B and C) Summary of cumulative distribution (B) and variation (C) of flow velocity among different vessel segments in eight half midbrains of seven larvae with each imaged at 2.0, 4.0, and 7.0 dpf. The inset in (B) shows average values of flow velocities. The numbers on the bars represent the number of vessel segments examined. * <i>p</i><0.05; ** <i>p</i><0.01 (Student's <i>t</i> test). Error bars, ± SEM.