Many morphogenesis processes during embryo development are fundamentally biomechanical processes, and disruption of these events can lead to debilitating congenital abnormalities. Imaging the biomechanical properties of embryos could provide insight into developmental disorders and could open new therapy avenues. However, current methods are invasive and are incapable of producing viscoelasticity maps of live samples in 3D. To overcome these limitations, we propose the use of reverberant shear wave fields in combination with optical coherence tomography (OCT) for high-resolution elastography at different developmental stages of murine embryos. A 1 kHz quasi-harmonic stimulation was applied to induce the diffuse shear field, which leveraged the heterogeneous microstructure and boundaries of the different tissue segments in the embryos. With this approach, we show how the shear wave speed (i.e., stiffness) of the spine, heart, and mid-brain increased as the embryo developed from embryonic day (E) 9.5 to E 11.5 at five separate stages. This noncontact technique is a promising method for imaging the biomechanical properties of different embryo structures during development with important applications for understanding developmental diseases and exploring treatments.

中文翻译：

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使用混响光学相干弹性成像的全胚胎生物力学


胚胎发育过程中的许多形态发生过程从根本上来说是生物力学过程，这些事件的破坏可能导致衰弱的先天性异常。对胚胎的生物力学特性进行成像可以提供对发育障碍的深入了解，并可以开辟新的治疗途径。然而，当前的方法是侵入性的，无法生成活体样本的 3D 粘弹性图。为了克服这些限制，我们建议使用混响剪切波场与光学相干断层扫描（OCT）相结合，在小鼠胚胎的不同发育阶段进行高分辨率弹性成像。应用 1 kHz 准谐波刺激来诱导弥散剪切场，利用胚胎中不同组织片段的异质微观结构和边界。通过这种方法，我们展示了随着胚胎从胚胎日 (E) 9.5 到 E 11.5 在五个不同阶段的发育，脊柱、心脏和中脑的剪切波速度（即刚度）如何增加。这种非接触技术是一种很有前途的方法，用于对发育过程中不同胚胎结构的生物力学特性进行成像，对于了解发育疾病和探索治疗方法具有重要应用。