幼年到成年斑马鱼大脑的OCT活体三维可视化

OCT in vivo Three-Dimensional Visualization of Zebrafish Brains from Juvenile to Adult

作为一种新型的模型动物,斑马鱼被广泛应用到大脑相关的研究中,但目前缺乏高分辨率活体评估幼年(>7日龄)到成年阶段斑马鱼大脑的成像技术。利用光学相干层析术(OCT)对孵化21,45,100 d的斑马鱼大脑进行活体成像,并与切片染色的结果进行对比。结果说明:OCT的成像深度和分辨率足以显示三个年龄段的斑马鱼大脑,OCT图像显示的大脑结构特征与切片染色结果匹配较好。二维和三维OCT结果都定量显示斑马鱼大脑在80 d内显著增大,但切片染色结果由于组织萎缩,不能准确地评估大脑发育情况。研究结果表明,OCT作为一种高效的活体成像工具,可用于基于斑马鱼的脑发育研究。

As a new type of model animal, zebrafish is more and more widely used in the brain-related researches. However, there is a lack of high-resolution imaging technologies for the in vivo characterization of the brain of zebrafish from its infancy(>7 days old) to adulthood. In this study, optical coherence tomography(OCT) is used to give in vivo imaging of zebrafish brains after hatching 21, 45 and 100 d. The results show that the imaging depth and resolution of OCT are both enough to visualize the whole brain of zebrafish from three age groups, and the brain structural features of OCT images match well with the sectional staining results. Both the 2 D and 3 D OCT results quantitatively show that the zebrafish brain increases significantly in 80 d, however due to tissue atrophy, the sectional staining results can not accurately or quantitatively evaluate the brain’s development. This study shows that OCT can be used as a tool for efficient in vivo imaging and used for the brain’s development research based on zebrafish.