Project Overview

The Multidimensional Human Embryo project was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, U.S.) to produce a complete three-dimensional image reference of human embryos from Carnegie stages 10 to 23 based on magnetic resonance microscopy and to make these images available over the Internet.

Formalin-fixed specimens came from the Carnegie Collection of Human Embryos at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP).

Each embryo was imaged with three magnetic resonance pulse sequences to obtain fully-registered T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and diffusion-weighted image datasets. These pulse sequence image series were reformatted to provide image datasets in each of the three principal imaging planes (transverse, coronal, and sagittal) for each embryo stage.

Volume-rendered images representing surface features of each whole embryo were produced from the three-dimensional datasets, as well as pseudo-time-lapse animations, to represent the growth that occurs during this time period of human development.

Several major organs were isolated from each T1-weighted embryo data set using image segmentation methods and separate image datasets were created to represent each of these organs.

Additionally, each embryo was optically photographed under a low-power microscope.

This was the first distributable image dataset to document in three dimensions the anatomy of the human embryonic time period.

The project's NICHD funding ran from July 1996 through February 2001.

MRM was performed 1996-1999 at the Center for In-vivo Microscopy at Duke University. Image processing and data managment was performed 1999-2001 at the (Stamps) School of Art and Design, University of Michigan.

Purpose of the Project

Disease processes and congenital malformations, as well as normal development, are studied by the effects of gene expression on growth in embryos. The accumulation of gene expression data from non-human mammals and the desire to integrate this information into studies of human development are increasing the demand for access to human embryological data . The need for information on human embryos to better understand processes of development and disease, and the difficulty in obtaining well-documented and well-preserved specimens presents an important challenge to understanding normal and abnormal development. There is a need to minimize the number of embryos of all species used during research and to maximize the distribution of information obtained from the embryos which are used. A complete source of distributable image data representing the human embryological time period is not available.

To address these needs we generated a collection of images of human embryology that is interactive and multidimensional. The collection is based on magnetic resonance microscopy of human embryos that were already a part of the highly respected Carnegie Collection of Human Embryos. This interactive collection of digital images goes far beyond any material that is currently available to study human embryology by providing a complete three-dimensional data set for each of 18 human embryos representing Carnegie stages 10 through 23, a critical embryonic time period for organogenesis. The users of the collection are able to manipulate the data on their own personal computers to view any slice from any plane of sectioning. Dynamic rotational views of whole embryos and "time-lapse" views of the growing embryo are accessible.

This collection is available to any interested researcher, student, or clinician. It should greatly facilitate the work of clinicians, investigators, and students of human development by bringing diverse pieces of information together in an easily retrievable and widely available form, replacing a process that traditionally takes days or weeks of library research to perform. It preserves a highly respected yet impermanent collection of human embryos and minimizes the need for collecting new embryos. We are a unique source for such a collection because ours is the only research center that combines access to well-documented human embryos, expertise in MR microscopy of embryos, and experience in generating and organizing a collection of digital images of embryos.

Collaborators

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Bethesda, Maryland, USA
N01-HD-6-3257
http://www.nichd.nih.gov /

The Center for In Vivo Microscopy
(A National Center for Research Resources, NCRR)
Department of Radiology
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina, USA
http://www.civm.duhs.duke.edu/

The Human Developmental Anatomy Center
(Carnegie Human Embryo Collection)
National Museum of Health and Medicine
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
Washington, D.C., USA
https://medicalmuseum.health.mil/index.cfm?p=collections.hdac.index

Brad Smith, PhD, Principal Investigator
Professor
Stamps School of Art & Design
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan USA
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~brdsmith/

Dale S. Huff, MD
Department of Pathology
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

G. Allan Johnson, PhD
Director, Center for In Vivo Microscopy
Box 3302
Department of Radiology
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina, USA