Micro-indentation and optical coherence tomography for the mechanical characterization of embryos: Experimental setup and measurements on chicken embryos

Marrese, Marica; Antonovaité, Nelda; Nelemans, Ben K. A.; Smit, Theo H.; Iannuzzi, Davide

doi:10.1016/j.actbio.2019.07.056

Cited by 18 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The simultaneous use of these two technologies allows one to perform systematic studies on two interconnected topics: on the one hand, the mechanical properties of the embryos that can be characterized through tissue microindentation; on the other hand, and the change in shape that occurs during morphogenesis. Therefore, we present a local mechanical characterization of live embryos that extends our previous work (Marrese et al, 2019) by highlighting the mechanical heterogeneity and the strong viscoelastic nature of the embryonic tissue in vivo . We further demonstrate that, while there are substantial differences in absolute viscoelastic responses between individual embryos, the relative trends among anatomical regions are similar and reasonably related to the maturation of the presomitic mesoderm (PSM) and midline in the trunk and tail.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…It is interesting to note that some of the mechanical features observed in vivo are different from the ones described for the fixed embryo (Marrese et al 2019). The mechanical maps reported previously for the formaldehyde-fixed embryo (Marrese et al 2019) showed an increase of stiffness along the mesoderm from the caudal tip to the rostral somites, possibly related to the effect of the formaldehyde to fix tissue by cross-linking of the biopolymers. This result is not confirmed for the live embryos, where the midline stiffness is already high in the tailbud.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…The indenter is based on ferrule-top technology (Chavan et al, 2010; Gruca et al, 2010), where a micro-machined cantilever, operating as a force transducer and equipped with a spherical tip, is used to determine the viscoelastic properties of the embryo via depth-controlled oscillatory ramp indentation profile (Antonovaite et al, 2018; Marrese et al, 2019; Van Hoorn et al, 2016). The OCT system images the embryonic structures during the indentation measurements and allows localization of the indentation points and evaluation of the quality and the immobilization of the sample.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The details of the experimental setup (Fig. 1) and sample preparation are briefly reviewed in the Method section and fully reported elsewhere (Marrese et al, 2019).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the lack of methodologies enabling precise and quantitative measurements of mechanical properties of live tissues has hindered an exhaustive understanding of the role of mechanics in embryonic development. In our earlier work (Marrese et al, 2019), we proposed an experimental platform that combines micro-indentation and optical coherence tomography to assess mechanical properties in paraformaldehyde-fixed embryos. There, we have demonstrated a relation between local mechanical properties and tissue morphology for three main embryonic regions of interest: the tail, the presomitic mesoderm, and the somitic mesoderm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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In vivocharacterization of chick embryo mesoderm by optical coherence tomography assisted microindentation

Marrese

Antonovaité

Nelemans

et al. 2020

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Embryos are growing organisms with highly heterogeneous properties in space and time.Understanding the mechanical properties is a crucial prerequisite for the investigation of morphogenesis. During the last ten years, new techniques have been developed to evaluate the mechanical properties of biological tissues in vivo. To address this need, we employed a new instrument that, via the combination of micro-indentation with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), allows us to determine both, the spatial distribution of mechanical properties of chick embryos and the structural changes in real-time provided by OCT. We report here the stiffness measurements on live chicken mesoderm during somite formation, from the mesenchymal tailbud to the epithelialized somites. The storage modulus of the mesoderm increases from (176±18) Pa in the tail up to (716±117) Pa in the somitic region.The midline has a storage modulus of (947±111) Pa in the caudal presomitic mesoderm, indicating a stiff rod along the body axis, which thereby mechanically supports the surrounding tissue. The difference in stiffness between midline and presomitic mesoderm decreases as the mesoderm forms somites. The viscoelastic response of the somites develops further until somite IV, which is commensurate with the slow process of epithelization of somites between S0 and SIV.Overall, this study provides an efficient method for the biomechanical characterization of soft biological tissues in vivo and shows that the mechanical properties strongly relate to different morphological features of the investigated regions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The details of the experimental setup (Fig. 1) and sample preparation are briefly reviewed in the Method section and fully reported elsewhere (Marrese et al, 2019).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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