Optical Coherence Tomography-Guided Brillouin Microscopy Highlights Regional Tissue Stiffness Differences During Anterior Neural Tube Closure in the Mthfd1l Murine Mutant

Authors

Yogeshwari S Ambekar
Carlo Donato Caiaffa
Bogdan J Wlodarczyk
Manmohan Singh
Alexander W Schill
John W Steele
Jitao Zhang
Salavat R Aglyamov
Giuliano Scarcelli
Richard H Finnell
Kirill V Larin

Language

English

Publication Date

5-15-2024

Journal

Development

DOI

10.1242/dev.202475

PMID

PMC11165724

PMCID

PMC11165724

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

5-17-2024

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Abstract

Neurulation is a highly synchronized biomechanical process leading to the formation of the brain and spinal cord, and its failure leads to neural tube defects (NTDs). Although we are rapidly learning the genetic mechanisms underlying NTDs, the biomechanical aspects are largely unknown. To understand the correlation between NTDs and tissue stiffness during neural tube closure (NTC), we imaged an NTD murine model using optical coherence tomography (OCT), Brillouin microscopy and confocal fluorescence microscopy. Here, we associate structural information from OCT with local stiffness from the Brillouin signal of embryos undergoing neurulation. The stiffness of neuroepithelial tissues in Mthfd1l null embryos was significantly lower than that of wild-type embryos. Additionally, exogenous formate supplementation improved tissue stiffness and gross embryonic morphology in nullizygous and heterozygous embryos. Our results demonstrate the significance of proper tissue stiffness in normal NTC and pave the way for future studies on the mechanobiology of normal and abnormal embryonic development.

Keywords

Animals, Female, Mice, Biomechanical Phenomena, Embryo, Mammalian, Formate-Tetrahydrofolate Ligase, Formates, Methylenetetrahydrofolate Dehydrogenase (NADP), Mice, Knockout, Microscopy, Confocal, Mutation, Neural Tube, Neural Tube Defects, Neurulation, Tomography, Optical Coherence, Brillouin microscopy, Neural tube closure, Neural tube defects, Biomechanics, Mouse

Published Open-Access

yes

Recommended Citation

Ambekar, Yogeshwari S; Caiaffa, Carlo Donato; Wlodarczyk, Bogdan J; et al., "Optical Coherence Tomography-Guided Brillouin Microscopy Highlights Regional Tissue Stiffness Differences During Anterior Neural Tube Closure in the Mthfd1l Murine Mutant" (2024). Faculty and Staff Publications. 4867.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/baylor_docs/4867