The Kimmel Center for Biology and Medicine at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
Magn Reson Med. 2012 Jan;67(1):251-7. doi: 10.1002/mrm.22991. Epub 2011 May 16.
The vasculature is the earliest developing organ in mammals and its proper formation is critical for embryonic survival. MRI approaches have been used previously to analyze complex three-dimensional vascular patterns and defects in fixed mouse embryos. Extending vascular imaging to an in utero setting with potential for longitudinal studies would enable dynamic analysis of the vasculature in normal and genetically engineered mouse embryos, in vivo. In this study, we employed an in utero MRI approach that corrects for motion, using a combination of interleaved gated acquisition and serial coregistration of rapidly acquired three-dimensional images. We tested the potential of this method by acquiring and analyzing images from wildtype and Gli2 mutant embryos, demonstrating a number of Gli2 phenotypes in the brain and cerebral vasculature. These results show that in utero MRI can be used for in vivo phenotype analysis of a variety of mutant mouse embryos.
脉管系统是哺乳动物最早发育的器官，其正常形成对于胚胎的存活至关重要。以前曾使用 MRI 方法来分析固定的小鼠胚胎中的复杂三维血管模式和缺陷。将血管成像扩展到具有纵向研究潜力的子宫内环境中，将能够对正常和基因工程小鼠胚胎中的血管进行动态分析。在这项研究中，我们采用了一种子宫内 MRI 方法，该方法使用交错门控采集和快速获取的三维图像的连续配准相结合来纠正运动。我们通过获取和分析野生型和 Gli2 突变型胚胎的图像来测试该方法的潜力，展示了大脑和脑血管中多种 Gli2 表型。这些结果表明，子宫内 MRI 可用于各种突变型小鼠胚胎的体内表型分析。
