Development of MRI for Observation of Human Embryos to Distinguish 1/100th of a Millimeter Associate Professor Terada
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system that can magnify the interior of small objects is called a magnetic resonance microscope (MR microscope). It has been used to observe chemically fixed specimens of human embryos in the early stages of development and has contributed greatly to the development of human embryology. By observing human embryo specimens in each developmental stage in three dimensions with MR microscopes, the development and growth processes of organs and organs have been visualized in detail, and three-dimensional morphological models have been created. However, conventional MR microscopes have a spatial resolution of only 4/100 of a mm at most, and small structures in human embryos are sometimes blurred or lost.
The research team has now developed a high-resolution MR microscope with a spatial resolution of 1/100th of a millimeter, which is much higher than conventional MR microscopes. This has made it possible to delineate the fine structures of the cranial nerves of a human embryo and smoothly delineate the structures of organs. This is the result of improving the hardware and imaging method, and applying a technology that efficiently collects and reconstructs data (compressed sensing technology).
In MRI, the size of the set pixel size does not directly translate into the resolution (resolution); in fact, the resolution is reduced due to various causes. As a result of verifying the resolution by photographing artificial structures for image quality evaluation, the resolution and the set pixel size were in agreement. In addition, the image was compared with an optical microscope image of a human embryo specimen at the same developmental stage, and it was confirmed that the microstructure was well delineated.
These results indicate that imaging at this high resolution effectively depicts the microstructure of the human embryo. This technology is expected to contribute to the development of human embryology by enabling the construction of high-resolution atlases (illustrations) of the brain and organs in human embryology research.
For more information, please click here.
