Examination of the mouse embryo by micro-CT.
Micro X-ray computed tomography (micro-CT) is widely used in preclinical studies of small animals. However, due to the low soft tissue contrast, segmentation of soft tissues in the micro-CT image is a challenging problem. To gain a better understanding of the macroscopic anatomy of the mouse embryo, 3 fixation methods and 3 metal stainings were examined for micro-CT using C57BL/6J mouse embryos in the present study. The examination demonstrated that 1% acetic acid/95% ethanol fixative together with zinc staining provided a high contrast micro-CT image, enabling the segmentation of soft tissues. Then, using this condition, the macroscopic embryo structure of the nude mouse was examined, revealing lack of a thymus. It appears that micro-CT with the fixation and staining condition devised in the present study could be a powerful tool in detecting the effects of various mutations at embryonic stages.
RIKEN BioResource Center, 3-1-1 Koyadai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0074, Japan.
Noriko
N
Hiraiwa
Mutsumi
M
Ishimoto
Hiroshi
H
Yasue
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL / Q000196:embryology*; D008819:Mice, Nude / Q000196:embryology*; D055114:X-Ray Microtomography / Q000379:methods