Nagase Takashi, Sasazaki Yoshihiro, Kikuchi Toshiyuki, Machida Masafumi
Clinical Research Center, National Hospital Organization Murayama Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan.
J Comput Assist Tomogr. 2008 Sep-Oct;32(5):816-21. doi: 10.1097/RCT.0b013e318157c5e2.
Microscopic computed tomography (microCT) has been recently applied to morphological evaluation of mouse embryos with or without congenital malformations, and 3-dimensional (3D) digital images of the whole embryo can be obtained. In the present study, the authors report a modified, rapid technique of 3D embryonic microCT without processing with osmium tetroxide.
Normal embryonic days 10.5 to 11 mouse embryos, as well as those with craniofacial anomalies treated with teratogens, were examined. After fixation, we processed the embryo samples with hexamethyldisilazane, instead of highly toxic osmium tetroxide in the original method.
Our protocol enabled clear 3D craniofacial imaging of the normal and anomalous mouse embryos within a short period of 20 minutes or 1 hour. In addition, some anatomical landmarks were clearly detected in the reconstituted craniofacial section images.
Our present data suggest a possible role of microCT for high-throughput morphological screening of the mouse embryos with craniofacial anomalies.
显微计算机断层扫描（microCT）最近已应用于对有或没有先天性畸形的小鼠胚胎进行形态学评估，并且可以获得整个胚胎的三维（3D）数字图像。在本研究中，作者报告了一种改良的、无需用四氧化锇处理的快速3D胚胎microCT技术。
检查正常胚胎期第10.5至11天的小鼠胚胎以及用致畸剂处理后出现颅面异常的胚胎。固定后，我们用六甲基二硅氮烷处理胚胎样本，而不是采用原始方法中使用的剧毒四氧化锇。
我们的方案能够在20分钟或1小时的短时间内对正常和异常小鼠胚胎进行清晰的3D颅面成像。此外，在重建的颅面断层图像中可以清楚地检测到一些解剖标志。
我们目前的数据表明，microCT在对有颅面异常的小鼠胚胎进行高通量形态学筛查方面可能发挥作用。
