4d-light-sheet-imaging-of-zebrafish-cardiac-contraction

4D Light-sheet Imaging of Zebrafish Cardiac Contraction

Zebrafish is an intriguing model organism known for its remarkable cardiac regeneration capacity. Studying the contracting heart in vivo is essential for ...

light-sheet-imaging-to-reveal-cardiac-structure-in-rodent-hearts

Light-Sheet Imaging to Reveal Cardiac Structure in Rodent Hearts

Light-sheet microscopy (LSM) plays a pivotal role in comprehending the intricate three-dimensional (3D) structure of the heart, providing crucial insights ...

The University of Texas at Dallas

Heart failure results in the high incidence and mortality all over the world. Mechanical properties of myocardium are critical determinants of cardiac function, with regional variations in myocardial contractility demonstrated within infarcted ventricles. Quantitative assessment of cardiac contractile function is therefore critical to identify myocardial infarction for the early diagnosis and therapeutic intervention.

Computational Analysis of Cardiac Contractile Function.

Light-sheet microscopy (LSM) enables us to strengthen the understanding of cardiac development, injury, and regeneration in mammalian models. This emerging technique decouples laser illumination and fluorescence detection to investigate cardiac micro-structure and function with a high spatial resolution while minimizing photodamage and maximizing penetration depth. To unravel the potential of volumetric imaging in cardiac development and repair, we sought to integrate our in-house LSM, Adipo-Clear, and virtual reality (VR) with neonatal mouse hearts. We demonstrate the use of Adipo-Clear to render mouse hearts transparent, the development of our in-house LSM to capture the myocardial architecture within the intact heart, and the integration of VR to explore, measure, and assess regions of interests in an interactive manner. Collectively, we have established an innovative and holistic strategy for image acquisition and interpretation, providing an entry point to assess myocardial micro-architecture throughout the entire mammalian heart for the understanding of cardiac morphogenesis.

Light sheet imaging and interactive analysis of the cardiac structure in neonatal mice.

Despite ongoing efforts in cardiovascular research, the acquisition of high-resolution and high-speed images for the purpose of assessing cardiac contraction remains challenging. Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) offers superior spatiotemporal resolution and minimal photodamage, providing an indispensable opportunity for the  study of cardiac micro-structure and contractile function in zebrafish larvae. To track the myocardial architecture and contractility, we have developed an imaging strategy ranging from LSFM system construction, retrospective synchronization, single cell tracking, to user-directed virtual reality (VR) analysis. Our system enables the four-dimensional (4D) investigation of individual cardiomyocytes across the entire atrium and ventricle during multiple cardiac cycles in a zebrafish larva at the cellular resolution. To enhance the throughput of our model reconstruction and assessment, we have developed a parallel computing-assisted algorithm for 4D synchronization, resulting in a nearly tenfold enhancement of reconstruction efficiency. The machine learning-based nuclei segmentation and VR-based interaction further allow us to quantify cellular dynamics in the myocardium from end-systole to end-diastole. Collectively, our strategy facilitates noninvasive cardiac imaging and user-directed data interpretation with improved efficiency and accuracy, holding great promise to characterize functional changes and regional mechanics at the single cell level during cardiac development and regeneration.

Xinyuan Zhang

Department of Bioengineering

The University of Texas at Dallas

4D Light-sheet Imaging of Zebrafish Cardiac Contraction

Light-Sheet Imaging to Reveal Cardiac Structure in Rodent Hearts