PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Michael Weber
AU  - Nico Scherf
AU  - Peter Kohl
AU  - Jan Huisken
TI  - Cell-accurate optical mapping across the entire developing heart
AID  - 10.1101/143057
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 143057
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/27/143057.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/27/143057.full
AB  - Organogenesis depends on orchestrated interactions between individual cells and morphogenically relevant cues at the tissue level. This is true for the heart, whose function critically relies on well-ordered communication between neighbouring cells, which is established and fine-tuned during development. For an integrated understanding of the development of structure and function, we need to move from isolated snap-shot observations of either microscopic or macroscopic parameters to simultaneous and, ideally continuous, cell-to-organ scale imaging. We introduce cell-accurate three-dimensional Ca2+-mapping of all cells in the entire heart during the looping stage in live embryonic zebrafish, using high-speed light sheet microscopy and tailored image processing and analysis. We show how myocardial region-specific heterogeneity in cell function emerges during early development and how structural patterning goes hand-in-hand with functional maturation of the entire heart. Our method opens the way to systematic, scale-bridging, in vivo studies of vertebrate organogenesis by cell-accurate structure-function mapping across entire organs.