Mouse heart showing position of coronary arteries

Composite image showing an embryonic heart from a mouse embryo at stage E18.5. The coronary circulation is crucial to the hearts function as it provides blood to the thick muscle tissue of the heart itself. These coronary arteries are very small and difficult to image using standard techniques, they are normaly observed by injecting the coronary circulation with a dye and using x-rays to image. This image was produced from data obtained using High Resolution Episcopic Microscopy (HREM) and recombined using 3D reconstruction software. This technique captures images of the block surface of an embedded sample during serial sectioning. Imaging the block rather than the section prevents distortion of structures and provides a greater level of detail. The coronary arteries were reconstructed by selecting for the 'holes' present in the section data, which was inverted and reconstructed from the complete section image stack and over-laid on top of the whole structure to show their positioning.