Reduction of artifacts and background signals in ex vivo mouse embryo MRI by potato starch suspension

The high-field MRI enables to investigate the microstructure in the mouse embryo. The proton-free fluid is used for the surrounding liquid around the specimen in MR-microimaging, but the potential issue of the image quality remains due to the air bubbles on the edge of the specimen and the motion artifact. Here, we demonstrated that the potato starch suspension with phosphate-buffered saline showed a low T1 and T2 signal intensity and strongly prevent the motion of the embryo during the scanning. These results indicate the utility of potato starch suspension for MR-microimaging of mouse embryos.