An Analysis of the Effects of D-Glucose and L-Glucose on Chicken Embryos during HH18 and HH24.

This research examines glucose's effect on heart development and congenital heart defects. Chicken embryos and D-glucose and L-glucose were used together to model hyperglycemia. Each egg was windowed, glucose was applied, and data was collected in the form of images and videos using stereo microscopes. Each chicken embryo's heart length, rate, and outflow tract diameter were analyzed using two image/video segmentation software: MATLAB and ImageJ. In MATLAB, two different algorithms were developed to segment and analyze the chicken embryos. The delineation algorithm outputted the diameter of the heart outflow tract during heart diastole and the heart length in mm. The M-mode analysis algorithm outputted the contrast values of a cardiac cycle of a user-specified segment. In ImageJ, a linear measurement algorithm was used to quantify embryo characteristics. The results of our study show that adding glucose caused the heart rate of the embryo to increase, the length of the heart to decrease, and the outflow tract distance during heart diastole to increase, all-in-all demonstrating that adding any concentration/type of glucose induces hyperglycemia in chicken embryos and alters the development of their heart which can be projected to humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]