Live 4D optical coherence tomography for early embryonic mouse cardiac phenotyping

Studying embryonic mouse development is important for our understanding of normal human embryogenesis and the underlying causes of congenital defects. Our research focuses on imaging early development in the mouse embryo to specifically understand cardiovascular development using optical coherence tomography (OCT). We have previously developed imaging approaches that combine static embryo culture, OCT imaging and advanced image processing to visualize the whole live mouse embryos and obtain 4D (3D+time) cardiodynamic datasets with cellular resolution. Here, we present the study of using 4D OCT for dynamic imaging of early embryonic heart in live mouse embryos to assess mutant cardiac phenotypes during development, including a cardiac looping defect. Our results indicate that the live 4D OCT imaging approach is an efficient phenotyping tool that can reveal structural and functional cardiac defects at very early stages. Further studies integrating live embryonic cardiodynamic phenotyping with molecular and genetic approaches in mouse mutants will help to elucidate the underlying signaling defects.