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4D, High‐speed Confocal Imaging Reveals Functional Changes During Cardiac Development in Vertebrate Embryos
Author(s) -
Dickinson Mary E
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a2-a
Subject(s) - confocal , zebrafish , embryonic heart , confocal microscopy , biology , embryo , heart development , microbiology and biotechnology , biomedical engineering , biological system , embryonic stem cell , physics , medicine , optics , genetics , gene
The fast cardiac contraction rate and the high velocity of blood cells have made it difficult to study cellular and sub‐cellular events relating to embryonic heart function in vivo . We have devised a dynamic three‐dimensional acquisition, reconstruction, and analysis procedure by combining a newly‐developed confocal slit‐scanning microscope, novel strategies for collecting and synchronizing cyclic image sequences to build volumes with high temporal and spatial resolution over the entire depth of the beating heart, and data analysis and reduction protocols for the systematic extraction of quantitative information to describe phenotype and function. The methods are sufficiently robust to image tissues within the heart at cellular resolution over a wide range of ages, even when motion patterns are only quasiperiodic. We have used these methods to study hemodynamic patterns during development and to determine the nature of the pumping mechanism in the linear heart tube using transgenic zebrafish embryos expressing localized fluorescent proteins.