1. Optical Cryoimaging of Rat Kidney and the Importance of Chromosome 13 in Salt-sensitive Hypertension F. Salehpour a, T. Kurth b, A.W. Cowley, Jr b, M. Ranji* a a Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee b Department of physiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

2. OBJECTIVE AND INTRODUCTION Hypertension is the biggest risk factor for the development and progression of stroke, heart failure, and end-stage renal disease. Excess dietary salt consumption plays a causal role in the development of salt-sensitive hypertension and renal oxidative stress and injury. In this study we used fluorescence imaging in cryogenic temperature to evaluate whether the increased consumption of salt contributes to excess oxidative stress and salt-sensitive hypertension.

3. METHODOLOGY A/D Digital I/O Board Frame Grabber 1)Lens 2)Stepper Motor 3)CCD Camera 4)Tissue Block 5)Microtome Blade 6)Excitation Filter Wheel 7)Emission Filter Wheel 8)Ultra Low Freezer 9)Excitation Source 10)Power Supply 2 8 5 4 6 7 9 10 1 3 NADH and FAD autofluorescent images from each group of kidneys, were processed to extract NADH RR values using MATLAB. Composite images were created using all image slices from cryoimager for each tissue, for both NADH and FAD signals. The image stacks were analyzed in MATLAB to measure the 3-D max projection NADH RR of tissue and their histograms.

4. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION