Multimodal imaging of mouse development: Tools for the postgenomic era

Abstract

With the sequence of the mouse genome known, it is now possible to create or identify mutations in every gene to determine the molecules necessary for normal development. Consequently, there is a growing need for advanced phenotyping tools to best understand defects produced by altering gene function. Perhaps nothing is more satisfying than to directly observe a process in action; to disturb it and see for ourselves how the process changes before our very eyes. No doubt, this desire is what drove the invention of the very first microscopes and continues to this day to fuel progress in the field of biological imaging. Because mouse embryos are small and develop embedded within many tissue layers within the nurturing environment of the mother, directly observing the dynamic, micro-and nanoscopic events of early mammalian development has proven to be one of the greater challenges for imaging scientists. Here, I will review some of the imaging methods being used to study mouse development, highlighting the results obtained from imaging.

MicroCT for developmental biology: A versatile tool for high‐contrast 3D imaging at histological resolutions

“…The need for three-dimensional (3D) representations of developing embryos is as old as embryology itself, and our modern genomic, functional, mutational, and quantitative approaches to studying developmental processes are no less dependent on accurate knowledge of normal and affected tissues and structures (Dickinson, 2006). This requires sizecalibrated 3D images that preserve the volumetric relationships within the original specimen.…”

Real-time, multidimensional in vivo imaging used to investigate blood flow in mouse pancreatic islets

“…Our successful application of this approach indicates that it will also be useful in investigating in vivo regulation of blood flow dynamics in islets as well as other organs. Figure 1A, pancreatic islets and their microcirculation were imaged in vivo using high-speed, line-scanning confocal fluorescence microscopy (25,26), a transgenic mouse line with EGFP-expressing β cells (24), and intravenously injected rhodamine dextran (27). To achieve the spatial and temporal resolution needed to investigate islet microcirculation, the pancreas of the anesthetized mouse was exteriorized and oriented on the microscope stage so that the distance between the islet and the objective lens was minimized.…”

Observing the invisible: Molecular and cellular imaging by multimodal virtual anatomy

“…Merging of different modalities has been realized already in some set-ups allowing for functional (molecular) and structural (anatomical) information from the same machine (10). Yet there is no one modality that is ideal for all experimental studies (3).…”