Dynamic imaging of preimplantation embryos in the murine oviduct

Jason C. Burton, Shang Wang, Irina V. Larina

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Studying the dynamic events involved in early preimplantation embryo development during their transport from the ovary to the uterus is of great significance to improve the understanding of infertility, and eventually to help reduce the infertility rate. The mouse is a widely used mammalian model in reproductive biology, however, dynamic imaging studies of mouse preimplantation embryos have been very limited due to the lack of proper imaging tools for such analysis. Here, we introduce an innovative approach, which can potentially be used for three-dimensional imaging and tracking of murine oocytes with optical coherence tomography (OCT) as they exit the ovary and migrate through the oviduct to the uterus. The imaging is performed with spectral-domain OCT system operating at 70 kHz A-scan rate. The preimplantation embryos and surrounding cumulus cells can be clearly visualized. Results from our experiments indicate that OCT has great potential for dynamic imaging of the oviduct and oocyte tracking, which provides the foundation for future investigations aimed at understanding dynamic events during preimplantation stages in normal development as well as in mouse models of infertility.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOptical Methods in Developmental Biology III
EditorsAndrew M. Rollins, Scott E. Fraser, Michael A. Choma
ISBN (Electronic)9781628414240
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015
EventOptical Methods in Developmental Biology III - San Francisco, United States
Duration: 7 Feb 20158 Feb 2015

Publication series

NameProgress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE
Volume9334
ISSN (Print)1605-7422

Conference

ConferenceOptical Methods in Developmental Biology III
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Francisco
Period7/02/158/02/15

Keywords

  • Infertility
  • Mouse
  • OCT
  • Oocytes
  • Oviduct
  • Pre-implantation Embryos
  • imaging

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