MRI Phenotyping of Craniofacial Development in Transgenic Mice Embryos

Hargun Sohi¹, Seth Ruffins¹, Yang Chai², Scott Fraser¹, Russell Jacobs³

Microscopic MRI (μMRI) is an emerging technique for high-throughput phenotyping of transgenic mouse embryos, and is capable of visualizing abnormalities in craniofacial development. μMRI methods rely on reduction of the tissue T1 relaxation time by penetration of a gadolinium chelate contrast agent. The use of contrast agents is aimed at reducing the T1 relaxation time of the sample thus permitting a decrease in acquisition scan time, and/or increase in image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and/or increase in spatial resolution. In this work we apply these technologies to delineating changes in a murine cleft palate model system.