High-Resolution 3D Reconstruction of the Surface of Live Early-Stage Toad Embryo

To show the three-dimensional (3D) shape of a live toad embryo is helpful to understand the toad embryo development. It is also desired to make more details visible by using high magnification objective lens. However, limited depth-of-field and field-of-view make it challenging to use high magnification objective lens in imaging the embryo development. This paper shows that 3D reconstruction of live toad embryo can be accomplished by collecting optical section grids in the xy-plane, acquiring each optical section along the z axis using a motor-controlled microscope, making each optical section a single in-focus image with the deconvolution algorithm, combining the image grids into one big image, and then reconstructing to a 3D view. In this study 3D reconstructions were made from both fixed and live early-stage toad embryos.