Closer Look at the Structure of Frog Embryo Yields New Insights into Development of Genetic Diseases

A closer look at the internal structure and cell movement inside a living frog embryo yielded insights scientists believe could help in the fight against genetic diseases.

The team X-rayed an African clawed frog embryo during gastrulation, the period when its hundreds of cells begin organizing into what will eventually become the nervous system, muscles and internal organs.

They did this using a method of nondestructive analysis using X-ray diffraction made possible by the Advanced Photon Source, which was powerful enough to take clear images and still prevent damage to the sensitive embryos.

Previously, absorption imaging required a contrast agent and a large X-ray dose capable of harming living organisms.

By using this new technique, the researchers were able to observe the evolution of vertebrates in greater detail, which in turn offered insight into how human genes turn on or off in order to create diseases.

“In our work, we did not only manage to resolve individual cells and parts of their structure, but we could also analyze single cell migration, as well as the movement of cellular networks,” explained Ralf Hofmann, one author of the study and a physicist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

During the experiment, the scientists took regular 15-second exposures separated by periods of 10 minutes over the course of two hours of different gastrulas, resulting in 13 time-lapse scans, which provided a detailed portrait of the transfiguration of the frog cells.

In particular, the researchers discovered new morphological structures, clarified the process for redistributing fluid in the embryo and located the areas of the embryo driving the movement of tissues and cells during gastrulation

The results were were published in the journal Nature, and included scientists from Northwestern University and the Karlsruher Institute for Technology in Germany, in collaboration with the Advanced Photon Source at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory.