High-resolution ultrasound and speckle tracking: a non-invasive approach to assess in vivo gastrointestinal motility during development.

ABSTRACT: Gastrointestinal motor activity has been extensively studied in adults; however, only few studies have investigated fetal motor skills. It is unknown when the gastrointestinal tract starts to contract during the embryonic period and how this function evolves during development. Here, we adapted a non-invasive high-resolution echography technique combined with speckle tracking analysis to examine the gastrointestinal tract motor activity dynamics during chick embryo development. We provided the first recordings of fetal gastrointestinal motility in living embryos without anesthesia. We found that, although gastrointestinal contractions appear very early during development, they become synchronized only at the end of the fetal period. To validate this approach, we used various pharmacologica

SUBMITTER: Sicard P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10655954 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature