Noninvasivein vivoimaging of embryonic β-cell development in the anterior chamber of the eye

Abstract

The fetal environment plays a decisive role in modifying the risk for developing diabetes later in life. Developing novel methodology for noninvasive imaging of β-cell development in vivo under the controlled physiological conditions of the host can serve to understand how this environment affects β-cell growth and differentiation. A number of culture models have been designed for pancreatic rudiment but none match the complexity of the in utero or even normal physiological environment. Speier et al. recently developed a platform of noninvasive in vivo imaging of pancreatic islets using the anterior chamber of the eye where islets get vascularized, grow and respond to physiological changes. The same methodology was adapted for the study of pancreatic development. E13.0, still undifferentiated rudiments with fluorescent lineage tracing were implanted in the AC of the eye, allowing the longitudinal study of their growth and differentiation. Within 48 h the anlages get vascularized and grow but their mesenchyme displays a selective growth advantage. The resulting imbalance leads to alteration in the differentiation pattern of the progenitors. Reducing the mesenchyme to its bare minimum before implantation allows the restoration of a proper balance and a development that mimics the normal pancreatic development. These groundbreaking observations demonstrate that the anterior chamber of the eye provides a good system for noninvasive in vivo fluorescence imaging of the developing pancreas under the physiology of the host and can have important implications for designing strategies to prevent or reverse the deleterious effects of hyperglycemia on altering β-cell function later in life.

Noninvasive intravital high-resolution imaging of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours

“…Noninvasive intravital imaging in the ACE has successfully been applied to study multiple aspects of beta cell physiology 31 , as well as pancreatic development 32 and glomeruli function 33 . Moreover, successful application of additional high-resolution imaging techniques, such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) 34 , further support the application of the ACE for intravital imaging.…”

Improved in vivo imaging method for individual islets across the mouse pancreas reveals a heterogeneous insulin secretion response to glucose

“…4 ). The gel prevents tissue drying while offering optimized light conductance for the sfGFP as previously illustrated 56 .…”

Intraocular in vivo imaging of pancreatic islet cell physiology/pathology

“…Cras-Meneur and co-workers isolated mouse dorsal pancreatic buds at E13.0 and transplanted them into the ACE of CD1 albino recipient mice [48] . Using buds from mice that express YFP under control of the Pdx-promoter-driven Cre-recombinase allowed visualizing all cells derived from Pdx1 progenitors.…”