Roy, Debashish, Gargesha, Madhusudhana, Steyer, Grant J., Hakimi, Parvin, Hanson, Richard W., and Wilson, David L.
We have developed, for the Case 3D Cryo-imaging system, a specialized, multi-scale visualization scheme which provides colorrich volume rendering and multi-planar reformatting enabling one to visualize an entire mouse and zoom in to organ, tissue, and microscopic scales. With this system, we have anatomically characterized, in 3D, from whole animal to tissue level, a transgenic mouse and compared it with its control. The transgenic mouse over-expresses the cytosolic form of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK-C) in its skeletal muscle and is capable of greatly enhanced physical endurance, and has a longer lifespan and reproductive life as compared to control animals. We semi-automatically analyzed selected organs such as kidney, heart, adrenal gland, spleen, and ovaries and found comparatively enlarged heart, much less visceral, subcutaneous and pericardial adipose tissue, and higher tibia-to-femur ratio in the transgenic animal. Microscopically, individual skeletal muscle fibers, fine mesenteric blood vessels, intestinal villi, among others, were clearly seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]