In vivo 3D MRI of insect brain: cerebral development during metamorphosis of Manduca sexta

Magnetic resonance imaging at 9.4 T as a tool for studying neural anatomy in non-vertebrates

“…While MRI has become a relatively commonplace clinical approach for examining soft tissues, it has only recently been exploited in non-vertebrate animal research (Brinkley et al, 2004;Herberholz et al, 2004;Michaelis et al, 2005). Invertebrate animals present significant advantages over vertebrates for MR imaging because they do not require anesthetics, can be easily immobilized, and can stay in the magnet for many hours.…”

“…Mn 2+ has a long history of use in MRI for enhancement of contrast in brain and other tissues in vertebrate organisms (Aoki et al, 2002;Burnett et al, 1984;Cory et al, 1987;Fornasiero et al, 1987;Geraldes et al, 1986;Leergaard et al, 2003;Lin and Koretsky, 1997;London et al, 1989;Newland et al, 1987;Pautler and Koretsky, 2002;Pautler et al, 1998;Tjälve et al, 1995Tjälve et al, , 1996Watanabe et al, 2001;Van der Linden et al, 2002), but its use is just emerging in invertebrate organisms (Brinkley et al, 2004;Herberholz et al, 2004;Michaelis et al, 2005). Mn 2+ is especially useful as a contrast agent in living tissues because it has an ionic radius and charge similar to calcium (Ca 2+ ), and can therefore substitute for Ca 2+ in many biological systems (Hunter et al, 1980).…”

Optical coherence tomography: Age estimation of Calliphora vicina pupae in vivo ?

“…Sarcophaga peregrina pupal head eversion has been observed in vivo using MRM [19] however movement generally causes blurring [20]. The highest quality images are those of static organs such as the brain [21][22][23][24] but as mentioned Necrophagous blowfly pupae are valuable contributors to the estimation of post-mortem interval, should an accurate age estimate be obtained. At present, this is reliant on a combination of rearing and destructive methods conducted on preserved samples, including morphological observation and gene expression analyses.…”

In vivo magnetic resonance microscopy of Drosophilae at 9.4 T

“…The volume of a mouse is 3000 times less than that of a human being, and insects are about 20,000 times smaller than a mouse. Some MRI studies of insects have already been carried out [21][22][23][24][25][26][27] using resolution levels that can be achieved with high-field spectrometers. Two-dimensional MR studies of brain morphology have been performed with high-field NMR spectrometers on Sarcophaga bullata flies [21] and honey bees [22] at 14.1 and 11.75 T, respectively, with in-plane resolutions down to 39*39 μm (slice thickness from 39 to 100 μm).…”

“…Two-dimensional MR studies of brain morphology have been performed with high-field NMR spectrometers on Sarcophaga bullata flies [21] and honey bees [22] at 14.1 and 11.75 T, respectively, with in-plane resolutions down to 39*39 μm (slice thickness from 39 to 100 μm). Some studies have also been performed with field spectrometer strengths ranging from 2.35 to 7 T to characterize organ development during larval morphogenesis and metamorphosis of Bombyx mori, Manduca sexta, Pieris brassicae pupa and Solidago galls [23][24][25][26].…”