The mouse embryo is one of the most common embryo models for pharmaceutical developers, toxicologists, teratologists and researchers of developmental biology. Mammalian embryos are also the most difficult embryos to observe during stages of organogenesis. The consequence is that most current technologies are based on observing endpoint phenotypes (fixed specimens) rather than investigating the live embryo. The novel combination of magnetic resonance microscopy and whole embryo culture will permit the interrogation of live mouse embryos to investigate both normal and experimentally disturbed developmental processes. Whole embryo culture techniques will be developed to provide the nutritive milieu necessary to bring the embryo into very close proximity with the imaging coil for high resolution magnetic resonance images. A culture chamber will be designed, a routine for providing culture medium will be determined, a coil will be produced to fit the culture chamber, and appropriate pulse sequences will be defined to scan live embryos on the 7 Tesla scanner for 24 and 48 hour time periods (gestational days 12 to 13 and 12 to 14). These data based on live embryos will contribute important developmental information to that already being obtained by current transgenic, in-situ, histochemical, and confocal techniques.
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