In vivo micro-scale tomography of ciliary behavior in the mammalian oviduct.

ABSTRACT: Motile cilia in the mammalian oviduct play a key role in reproduction, such as transporting fertilized oocytes to the uterus for implantation. Due to their small size (~5-10 μm in length and ~300 nm in diameter), live visualization of cilia and their activity in the lumen of the oviduct through tissue layers represents a major challenge not yet overcome. Here, we report a functional low-coherence optical imaging technique that allows in vivo depth-resolved mapping of the cilia location and cilia beat frequency (CBF) in the intact mouse oviduct with micro-scale spatial resolution. We validate our approach with widely-used microscopic imaging methods, present the first in vivo mapping of the oviduct CBF in its native context, and demonstrate the ability of this approach to differentiate CBF

SUBMITTER: Wang S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4538602 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature