We thank Dr. Rosenblum for his letter and compliment him for his pioneering experiments on the mouse pial vasculature. The purpose of our communication was to emphasize recent improvements in physiological monitoring and artificial ventilation that will facilitate research on the cerebrovasculature in mutant and wild-type strains. We take the position that artificial ventilation and continuous monitoring are an indispensable part of long-lasting experiments on cerebrovascular regulation (see Irikura et al., 1995). Our results do not invalidate the observations of Rosenblum and his colleagues, and that point should not be ambiguous.
