Zhou Yu-Qing, Cahill Lindsay S, Sled John G
Mouse Imaging Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Translational Biology & Engineering Program, Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Methods Mol Biol. 2018;1752:17-39. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7714-7_3.
Genetically engineered mice have been widely used for studying cardiovascular development, physiology and diseases. In the past decade, high frequency ultrasound imaging technology has been significantly advanced and applied to observe the cardiovascular structure, function, and blood flow dynamics with high spatial and temporal resolution in mice. This noninvasive imaging approach has made possible longitudinal studies of the mouse embryo/fetus in utero. In this chapter, we describe detailed methods for: (1) the assessment of the structure, function, and flow dynamics of the developing heart of the mouse embryo during middle gestation (E10.5-E13.5); and (2) the measurement of flow distribution throughout the circulatory system of the mouse fetus at late gestation (E17.5). With the described protocols, we are able to illustrate the main cardiovascular structures and the corresponding functional and flow dynamic events at each stage of development, and generate baseline physiological information about the normal mouse embryo/fetus. These data will serve as the reference material for the identification of cardiovascular abnormalities in numerous mouse models with targeted genetic manipulations.
基因工程小鼠已被广泛用于研究心血管发育、生理学和疾病。在过去十年中，高频超声成像技术取得了显著进展，并被应用于以高空间和时间分辨率观察小鼠的心血管结构、功能和血流动力学。这种非侵入性成像方法使得对子宫内小鼠胚胎/胎儿进行纵向研究成为可能。在本章中，我们描述了以下详细方法：（1）评估妊娠中期（E10.5-E13.5）小鼠胚胎发育中心脏的结构、功能和血流动力学；（2）测量妊娠后期（E17.5）小鼠胎儿整个循环系统的血流分布。通过所描述的方案，我们能够阐明发育各阶段的主要心血管结构以及相应的功能和血流动力学事件，并生成关于正常小鼠胚胎/胎儿的基线生理信息。这些数据将作为鉴定众多具有靶向基因操作的小鼠模型中心血管异常的参考材料。
