Key result
Brightfield, confocal, and atomic force microscopy successfully detect and quantify cardiac contractile activity in mouse embryos.
Provides methodological approaches for imaging and quantifying early cardiac contractile activity in mouse embryos to study morphogenetic remodeling and congenital heart defects.
May aid preclinical modeling of congenital heart defects; leaves open clinical translation from mouse embryos.
The heart is one of the first organs to develop during mammalian embryogenesis. In the mouse, it starts to form shortly after gastrulation, and is derived primarily from embryonic mesoderm. The embryonic heart is unique in having to perform a mechanical contractile function while undergoing complex morphogenetic remodeling. Approaches to imaging the morphogenesis and contractile activity of the developing heart are important in understanding not only how this remodeling is controlled but also the origin of congenital heart defects (CHDs). Here, we describe approaches for visualizing contractile activity in the developing mouse embryo, using brightfield time lapse microscopy and confocal microscopy of calcium transients. We describe an algorithm for enhancing this image data and quantifying contractile activity from it. Finally we describe how atomic force microscopy can be used to record contractile activity prior to it being microscopically visible.
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Chen et al. (2015) studied Cardiac development in mouse embryos. Multiple imaging modalities (brightfield, confocal, AFM) was evaluated on Detection and quantification of cardiac contractile activity and calcium transients. Multiple imaging modalities, including brightfield microscopy, confocal microscopy, and atomic force microscopy, can successfully detect and quantify cardiac contractile activity in early mouse embryos.
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