title: High frequency ultrasound for in vivo pregnancy diagnosis and staging of placental and fetal development in mice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ultrasound is a valuable non-invasive tool used in obstetrics and gynecology to monitor the growth and well being of the human fetus. The laboratory mouse has recently emerged as an appropriate model for fetal and perinatal studies because morphogenetic processes in mice exhibit adequate homology to those in humans, and genetic manipulations are relatively simple to perform in mice. High-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) has recently become available for small animal preclinical imaging and can be used to study pregnancy and development in the mouse. The objective of the current study was to assess the main applications of HFUS in the evaluation of fetal growth and placental function and to better understand human congenital diseases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  On each gestational day, at least 5 dams were monitored with HFUS; a total of ∼200 embryos were examined. Because it is not possible to measure each variable for the entire duration of the pregnancy, the parameters were divided into three groups as a function of the time at which they were measured. Univariate analysis of the relationship between each measurement and the embryonic day was performed using Spearman's rank correlation (Rs). Continuous linear regression was adopted for multivariate analysis of significant parameters. All statistical tests were two-sided, and a p value of 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study describes the main applications of HFUS to assess changes in phenotypic parameters in the developing CD1 mouse embryo and fetus during pregnancy and to evaluating physiological fetal and placental growth and the development of principal organs such as the heart, kidney, liver, brain and eyes in the embryonic mouse. A database of normal structural and functional parameters of mouse development will provide a useful tool for the better understanding of morphogenetic and cardiovascular anomalies in transgenic and mutant mouse models.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche Avanzate, Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II, Napoli, Italy ; IRCCS Fondazione SDN, Napoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Adelaide
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Greco
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ragucci
authors.forename: Anna Rita Daniela
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Coda
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rosa
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gargiulo
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liuzzi
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gramanzini
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Albanese
authors.forename: Sabina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pappatà
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mancini
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brunetti
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salvatore
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D047109:Fetal Development; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D010920:Placenta / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012044:Regression Analysis; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal