Here, the experimental protocols are described for preparing Drosophila at different developmental stages and performing longitudinal optical imaging of Drosophila heartbeats using a custom optical coherence microscopy (OCM) system. The cardiac morphological and dynamical changes can be quantitatively characterized by analyzing the heart structural and functional parameters from OCM images.
Men, J., Jerwick, J., Wu, P., Chen, M., Alex, A., Ma, Y., Tanzi, R. E., Li, A., Zhou, C. Drosophila Preparation and Longitudinal Imaging of Heart Function In Vivo Using Optical Coherence Microscopy (OCM). J. Vis. Exp. (118), e55002, doi:10.3791/55002 (2016).