Endocrine Abstracts

Optical Projection Tomography (OPT) is a novel, unique and fast whole mount imaging technology which generates stunning 3D images plus virtual sections (in 3 orientations) of small biological specimens (1–15 mm). It is ideal for analysis of patterns of gene expression and protein distribution as it can be used with both visible (e.g. LacZ) and fluorescent stains. OPT can also be used on unstained tissue. The virtual sections give cellular levels of resolution, whilst the 3D images allow a detailed exploration of staining pattern and morphology in a way that has never before been possible. OPT is ideal for early and preclinical studies and is particularly suitable for imaging mouse and rat organs (e.g. brain, lung, heart, pancreas), human biopsy tissue and vertebrate embryos. My presentation will focus on the advances that our laboratory in Edinburgh and other OPT users have made in imaging all of these tissues.