Explant Imaging
Explant Imaging - Related Videos
06:25
Explant Culture for Developmental Studies
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2023
Explant culture is a technique in which living cells or tissues are removed from an embryo for continued development outside of the organism. This ex vivo approach allows researchers to manipulate and observe developing tissues in ways that are not possible in vivo. Once established, explant culture is frequently used to understand the role of genes and signaling molecules in organogenesis. This video will first introduce the basic principles of explant culture and demonstrate a protocol to...
07:45
Explant Culture of Neural Tissue
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2023
The intricate structure of the vertebrate nervous system arises from a complex series of events involving cell differentiation, cell migration, and changes in cell morphology. Studying these processes is essential to our understanding of nervous system function as well as our ability to diagnose and treat disorders that result from abnormal development. However, neural tissues are relatively inaccessible for experimental manipulations, especially in embryonic mammals. As a result, many...
11:55
Culture of Adult Transgenic Zebrafish Retinal Explants for Live-cell Imaging by Multiphoton Microscopy
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Cited by 6 •
2017
Zebrafish retinal regeneration has mostly been studied using fixed retinas. However, dynamic processes such as interkinetic nuclear migration occur during the regenerative response and require live-cell imaging to investigate the underlying mechanisms. Here, we describe culture and imaging conditions to monitor Interkinetic Nuclear Migration (INM) in real-time using multiphoton microscopy.
03:15
Time-Lapse Confocal Imaging of Neuronal Dendritic Dynamics in Mouse Retinal Explants
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2025
Source: Ing-Esteves, S. & Lefebvre, J. L. Time-Lapse Imaging of Neuronal Arborization using Sparse Adeno-Associated Virus Labeling of Genetically Targeted Retinal Cell Populations. J. Vis. Exp. (2021)This video demonstrates the use of confocal microscopy to visualize dendritic dynamics in live mouse retinal explants. It outlines the steps for stabilizing the retina under a confocal microscope, performing epifluorescence imaging to visualize starburst amacrine interneurons, and capturing...
02:21
Dissection and Mounting of Fruit Fly Larval Brain Explants
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2025
This video demonstrates the dissection and mounting of brain explants from Drosophila larvae. The central nervous system (CNS), attached to eye disks, is extracted from the larvae and then mounted on a glass slide in a physiological saline solution.
FAQs
The tissue architecture and interactions among neighboring cells remain available for observation, rather than being reduced to individual cells. This retained organization can reveal how cells behave within a larger biological structure and how tissue-level activity develops over time. Consequently, explant imaging provides an intermediate level of analysis between whole-organism observation and experiments using isolated cells.
Time-lapse recording shows how biological events unfold instead of capturing only a single structural endpoint. Repeated imaging can expose changes in cell behavior, tissue organization, or development as they occur under laboratory conditions. This temporal information helps distinguish ongoing processes from static features and supports analysis of how an explant responds during an experimental observation period.
Interpretation depends on the controlled culture environment, the suitability of that environment for the explant, the imaging system, and the duration of observation. These conditions influence whether researchers can clearly examine structure, activity, or changes over time. Maintaining appropriate experimental conditions is therefore essential when comparing tissue behavior or responses to treatments.
Explant imaging occupies a middle ground between these approaches. Unlike isolated-cell analysis, it can retain tissue organization and interactions; unlike whole-organism observation, it permits examination under controlled laboratory conditions. This combination allows researchers to investigate tissue-level processes while limiting the complexity of the entire organism, making the approach useful for focused biological experiments.
A typical workflow begins by removing the tissue or organ of interest, placing it in a suitable culture environment, and maintaining controlled laboratory conditions. Researchers then use microscopy or another imaging system to record the explant, often repeatedly over time. The resulting observations can be examined for structural changes, activity, cell behavior, tissue organization, or development.
The approach can provide visual information about biological structure and activity, including changes in cell behavior, tissue organization, and development. Repeated observations may also show how these features change during the experiment. When an experimental treatment is introduced, imaging can help document the explant's response within the controlled culture setting.
Researchers can apply it to questions involving development, regeneration, disease processes, and responses to experimental treatments. Its value comes from combining tissue-level organization with controlled laboratory observation, allowing biological changes to be examined without relying solely on whole-organism studies. In biology, this makes it a useful strategy for connecting organismal phenomena with cellular and tissue analysis.