MRI Atlas Highlights Anatomy of Developing Mice
Unprecedented images available from 10-1/2 days before birth to 32 days afterwards
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
DURHAM, NC -- Mouse embryos measure only a centimeter, and their internal organs are much smaller than that.
But a new high-resolution 3-D atlas of the developing mouse, announced the week of Aug. 11 by Duke University and the University of Edinburgh researchers in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), allows scientists and students alike to electronically penetrate mouse bodies from 10-1/2 days before delivery up to 32 days after birth to examine any anatomical feature at any angle.
Made possible through a microscopic application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging technology, special preparation techniques, and tailored software developed at Duke and elsewhere, the National Center for Research Resources-funded project lets specialists compare internal anatomies of normal rodents to those with genetic mutations at 19.5 millionths of a meter resolutions -- about 1 million times higher resolution than clinical MRI machines can provide.
The atlas's virtual images are available free online through a website of Duke's Center for In Vivo Microscopy. Center scientists are working with researchers around the world to scan their mouse models with genetic mutations.
"This technology allows scientists to quantitatively access links between genetics and anatomy in ways previously not possible," said G. Allan Johnson, the center's director and the corresponding author of the PNAS report.