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(SA2) LOOKING DEEPER INTO VERTEBRATE DEVELOPMENT: MICROMRI APPLICATIONS IN DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY. Jacobs, Russell1, Ruffins, Seth1, Pautler, Robia1, Tyszka, Mike1, 1 Biological Imaging Center, Pasadena, CA ABSTRACT- The exquisite sensitivity of MRI to the local physical and chemical environment provides a wide range of mechanisms giving rise to intrinsic contrast in the MR experiment, thus providing images with dramatic differences between different tissue types (e.g. white versus gray matter, myelinated versus unmyelinated fibers, and brain parenchyma versus ventricles). The recent advent of MRI contrast agents that are physiologically sensitive opens up new avenues of study, not the least of which is the potential for in vivo imaging of gene expression. Three-dimensional digital atlases of normal development in the mouse. Gene expression patterns, receptor domains, arrays of innervation in the developing nervous system, cell lineage patterns, and a host of other types of biological processes in embryonic and adult animals take place in three spatial and one temporal dimensions. They occur within the context of anatomy of the specific sample being examined. Digital atlases provide a means to put such specific data within the context of normal specimen anatomy, analyze the information in three (or more) dimensions, and examine relationships between different types of information. The atlas discussed here is composed of three different modules: unprocessed KEY WORDS: microMRI, altas, morphometry |
MR images of fixed embryos aged 6.5 to 15.5 days post conception (dpc); an annotated atlas of the anterior portion of a 13.5dpc mouse where anatomical structures in transverse sections of the embryo have been delineated and linked to descriptive files; a three-dimensional model of the 13.5dpc embryo. As an example of how other types of information can be incorporated into this model, we have 'painted' in the gene expression pattern of Dlx5/Dlx6 genes that are involved in the regulation of forebrain development. Contrast agents: selective enhancement The geography (what's where when) of gastrulation in Xenopus laevis. Highlighting active neuronal tracts in the normal mouse brain.