Light-Sheet Imaging to Reveal Cardiac Structure in Rodent Hearts

Summary

The protocol utilizes advanced light-sheet microscopy along with adapted tissue clearing methods to investigate intricate cardiac structures in rodent hearts, holding great potential for the understanding of cardiac morphogenesis and remodeling.

Abstract

Light-sheet microscopy (LSM) plays a pivotal role in comprehending the intricate three-dimensional (3D) structure of the heart, providing crucial insights into fundamental cardiac physiology and pathologic responses. We hereby delve into the development and implementation of the LSM technique to elucidate the micro-architecture of the heart in mouse models. The methodology integrates a customized LSM system with tissue clearing techniques, mitigating light scattering within cardiac tissues for volumetric imaging. The combination of conventional LSM with image stitching and multiview deconvolution approaches allows for the capture of the entire heart. To address the inherent trade-off between axial resolution and field of view (FOV), we further introduce an axially swept light-sheet microscopy (ASLM) method to minimize out-of-focus light and uniformly illuminate the heart across the propagation direction. In the meanwhile, tissue clearing methods such as iDISCO enhance light penetration, facilitating the visualization of deep structures and ensuring a comprehensive examination of the myocardium throughout the entire heart. The combination of the proposed LSM and tissue clearing methods presents a promising platform for researchers in resolving cardiac structures in rodent hearts, holding great potential for the understanding of cardiac morphogenesis and remodeling.

Introduction

Heart failure remains the leading cause of mortality worldwide, primarily due to the lack of regenerative capacity of mature cardiomyocytes¹. The intricate architecture of the heart plays a crucial role in its function and provides insights into developmental processes. A profound understanding of cardiac structure is essential for elucidating the fundamental processes of cardiac morphogenesis and remodeling in response to myocardial infarction. Recent progress has demonstrated that neonatal mice can restore cardiac function following injury, while adult mice lack such regenerative capacity². This establishes a foundatio....

Protocol

Animal protocols and experiments have been approved and conducted under the oversight of the University of Texas at Dallas Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC #21-03). C57BL6 mice, including neonates at postnatal day 1 (P1) and 8-week-old adults, were used in this study. No difference was observed between males and females. All data acquisition and image post-processing were carried out using open-source software or platforms with research or educational licenses. The resources are available from the autho.......

Discussion

The advancement of imaging, computation, and tissue clearing methods has provided an unparalleled opportunity to extensively investigate cardiac structure and function. This holds great potential for deepening our understanding of cardiac morphogenesis and pathogenesis using an intact rodent heart model. In contrast to in vivo studies of zebrafish heart using a similar approach^40,41,42,43

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
1% Agarose
Low melting point agarose	Thermo Fisher	16520050
Deionized water	-	-
Chemicals for tissue clearing
5-Amino-1,3,3-trimethylcyclohexanemethylamine, mixture of cis and trans	Sigma-Aldrich	118184
D.E.R.™ 332	Sigma-Aldrich	31185
D.E.R.™ 736	Sigma-Aldrich	31191
Dibenzyl ether (DBE)	Sigma-Aldrich	33630
Dichloromethane (DCM)	Sigma-Aldrich	270997
Fluorescent beads	Spherotech	FP-0556-2
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)	Sigma-Aldrich	216736
Methanol	Sigma-Aldrich	439193
Paraformaldehyde (PFA)	Thermo Fisher	47392
Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS)	Sigma-Aldrich	79383
Potassium Chloride (KCl)	Sigma-Aldrich	P3911
Software and algorithms
Amira	Thermo Fisher Scientific	2021.2
BigStitcher	Hörl et al.22
Fiji-ImageJ	Schindelin et al.20	1.54f
HCImage Live	Hamamatsu Photonics	4.6.1.2
LabVIEW	National Instruments Corporation	2017 SP1
Key components of the customized light-sheet system
0.63 - 6.3X Zoom body	Olympus	MVX-ZB10
10X Illumination objective	Nikon	MRH00105
1X detection objective	Olympus	MV PLAPO 1X/0.25
473nm DPSS Laser	Laserglow Technologies	LRS-0473-PFM-00100-05
532nm DPSS laser	Laserglow Technologies	LRS-0532-PFM-00100-05
589 nm DPSS laser	Laserglow Technologies	LRS-0589-GFF-00100-05
BNC connector	National Instrument	BNC-2110
Cylindrical lens	Thorlabs	ACY254-050-A
DC-Motor Controller, 4 axes	Physik Instrumente	C-884.4DC
ETL	Optotune	EL-16-40-TC-VIS-5D-1-C
ETL Cable	Optotune	CAB-6-300
ETL Lens Driver	Optotune	EL-E-4i
Filter	Chroma	ET525/30
Filter	Chroma	ET585-40
Filter	Chroma	ET645-75
Filter wheel	Shutter Instrument	LAMBDA 10-B
Motorized translation stage	Physik Instrumente	L-406.20DG10
Motorized translation stage	Physik Instrumente	L-406.40DG10
Motorized translation stage	Physik Instrumente	M-403.4PD
NI multifunction I/O	National Instrument	PCIe-6363
sCMOS camera	Hamamatsu	C13440-20CU
Stepper motor	Pololu	1474
Tube lens	Olympus	MVX-TLU