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. 2014 Mar 18;111(11):3921-6.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1308650111. Epub 2014 Mar 4.

In vivo X-ray cine-tomography for tracking morphological dynamics

Tomy dos Santos Rolo  1 , Alexey Ershov, Thomas van de Kamp, Tilo Baumbach
Affiliations

In vivo X-ray cine-tomography for tracking morphological dynamics

Tomy dos Santos Rolo et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Scientific cinematography using ultrafast optical imaging is a common tool to study motion. In opaque organisms or structures, X-ray radiography captures sequences of 2D projections to visualize morphological dynamics, but for many applications full four-dimensional (4D) spatiotemporal information is highly desirable. We introduce in vivo X-ray cine-tomography as a 4D imaging technique developed to study real-time dynamics in small living organisms with micrometer spatial resolution and subsecond time resolution. The method enables insights into the physiology of small animals by tracking the 4D morphological dynamics of minute anatomical features as demonstrated in this work by the analysis of fast-moving screw-and-nut-type weevil hip joints. The presented method can be applied to a broad range of biological specimens and biotechnological processes.

Keywords: in vivo imaging; motion tracking; screw joint; synchrotron.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
In vivo X-ray 4D cine-tomography experiment. (A) Photograph of S. granarius, dorsal view. (B) Experimental setup for ultrafast X-ray microtomography showing bending magnet (1), rotation stage (2), fixed specimen (3), and detector system (4). (C) Radiographic projection. (D) Three-dimensional rendering of the reconstructed volume with thorax cut open and revealing hip joints (arrows). (E) In vivo cine-tomographic sequence of moving weevil, overview scan.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Morphological dynamics and kinematics analysis of the moving screw joint, based on high-resolution scan. (A–C) Time-lapse sequence of tomographic slices, corresponding to 0, 400, and 800 ms. (D) Tomographic slice of postmortem scan with increased exposure time. (E) Manual labeling of coxa (green) and trochanter (yellow). (F) Three-dimensional model of the screw joint based on manual labeling. (G) Three-dimensional motion field computed from 0 and 130 ms. (H) In vivo morphological dynamics of the screw joint based on the 3D model (F) and automated motion estimation (G). (I) Kinematics analysis: global displacement of the whole screw-and-nut system with respect to the main body (green plot); sudden translation of the trochanter inside the coxa (blue plot); linear rotational movement of the trochanter (yellow plot).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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