Intravital imaging of mouse embryos
- 11 April 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 368 (6487), 181-186
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba0210
Abstract
Embryonic development is a complex process that is unamenable to direct observation. In this study, we implanted a window to the mouse uterus to visualize the developing embryo from embryonic day 9.5 to birth. This removable intravital window allowed manipulation and high-resolution imaging. In live mouse embryos, we observed transient neurotransmission and early vascularization of neural crest cell (NCC)–derived perivascular cells in the brain, autophagy in the retina, viral gene delivery, and chemical diffusion through the placenta. We combined the imaging window with in utero electroporation to label and track cell division and movement within embryos and observed that clusters of mouse NCC-derived cells expanded in interspecies chimeras, whereas adjacent human donor NCC-derived cells shrank. This technique can be combined with various tissue manipulation and microscopy methods to study the processes of development at unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution.Funding Information
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R35GM122465)
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK119795)
This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Growing Knowledge: Using Stem Cells to Study Developmental NeurotoxicityEnvironmental Health Perspectives, 2010
- Intravital imaging of embryonic and tumor neovasculature using viral nanoparticlesNature Protocols, 2010
- Barrier Capacity of Human Placenta for Nanosized MaterialsEnvironmental Health Perspectives, 2010
- Long-term, high-resolution imaging in the mouse neocortex through a chronic cranial windowNature Protocols, 2009
- Somatic cell nuclear transfer and derivation of embryonic stem cells in the mouseMethods, 2008
- The ground state of embryonic stem cell self-renewalNature, 2008
- In vivo electroporation in the embryonic mouse central nervous systemNature Protocols, 2006
- Technicolour transgenics: imaging tools for functional genomics in the mouseNature Reviews Genetics, 2003
- The midbrain-hindbrain phenotype ofCell, 1992
- Mammalian neural crest cells participate in normal embryonic development on microinjection into post-implantation mouse embryosNature, 1985