Abstract
Tissue morphogenesis and embryonic development are dynamic events challenging to quantify, especially considering the intricate events that happen simultaneously in different locations and time. Micro- and more recently nano-computed tomography (micro/nanoCT) has been used for the past 15 years to characterize large 3D fields of tortuous geometries at high spatial resolution. We and others have advanced micro/nanoCT imaging strategies for quantifying tissue- and organ-level fate changes throughout morphogenesis. Exogenous soft tissue contrast media enables visualization of vascular lumens and tissues via extravasation. Furthermore, the emergence of antigen-specific tissue contrast enables direct quantitative visualization of protein and mRNA expression. Micro-CT X-ray doses appear to be non-embryotoxic, enabling longitudinal imaging studies in live embryos. In this chapter we present established soft tissue contrast protocols for obtaining high-quality micro/nanoCT images and the image processing techniques useful for quantifying anatomical and physiological information from the data sets.
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Gregg, C.L., Recknagel, A.K., Butcher, J.T. (2015). Micro/Nano-Computed Tomography Technology for Quantitative Dynamic, Multi-scale Imaging of Morphogenesis. In: Nelson, C. (eds) Tissue Morphogenesis. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1189. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1164-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1164-6_4
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Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
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Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-1164-6
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