Differential integrin expression in pre-implantation embryos developing under in vivo and in vitro conditions.

Implantation failure is a major problem in human assisted reproduction, which persists regardless the optimization of endometrial receptivity and selection of genetically and morphologically healthy embryos. Since embryo-endometrium interaction depends on cell junctional, cell adhesion and cell-substratum adhesion molecules, the present study inquired whether in vitro growing murine embryos display similar to the in vivo growing embryos patterns of adhesion molecules. To this extend aVb3 expression and distribution in zygotes and 2-cell stage embryos were studied. The results demonstrated that only the in vivo growing embryos displayed specifically polarized aVb3 distribution, indicating their potential successful interaction with endometrium. Based on previous studies showing that L-carnitine (L-Cn) could affect embryonic development, it was demonstrated that the addition of L-Cn to the culture medium, could lead the in vitro growing embryos to acquire aVb3 expression and distribution similar to the in vivo growing embryos. Visualization of the effect of L-Cn using third harmonic generation imaging showed decreased lipid droplet levels in 2-cell-stage embryos, observation that correlates with an active energetic state of the growing embryos. Thus, the application of L-Cn to the culture medium could assist pre-implantation-state embryos to acquire aVb3 expression and distribution similar to the in vivo developing conditions.

Photoacoustic imaging methodology for the optical characterization of contact lenses.

We demonstrate photoacoustic microscopy as a metrology method for the optical characterization and quality control of contact lenses (CLs). Dual-wavelength excitation is applied to CLs tinted on both sides with two thin ink layers, each of them possessing distinctly different optical absorption properties. Thus, the method is capable of measuring the elevation maps of both CL surfaces during two subsequent imaging sessions and extracting the CL thickness, curvatures, and dioptric power. We show that such an easily implementable technique provides robust, high-precision, cost-effective three-dimensional imaging and characterization of both rigid and soft CLs, which renders it highly favorable for a broad range of applications.

l-Carnitine affects preimplantation embryo development toward infertility in mice.

l-Carnitine (l-Cn), despite the beneficial role as energy-generating substance delivering long-chain fatty acids to the ß-oxidation pathway in mitochondria, has been accused to cause an endometriosis-like state to BALB/c mice manifested by increased inflammatory cytokines in serum and peritoneal fluid, accumulation of immune cells in the peritoneal cavity and uterine walls and most importantly, correlating to infertility. Exploring this type of infertility, the effect of l-Cn on preimplantation embryo development, ovarian integrity and systemic maternal immunity was studied. Using nonlinear microscopy analysis, which was shown to be a powerful tool for determining embryo quality by quantitatively estimating the lipid body (LB) content of the cells, it was shown that in vitro and in vivo administration of l-Cn significantly decreased LB mean area in zygotes. Daily intraperitoneal administration of 2.5mg l-Cn for 3, 4 and 7days to mice significantly decreased the percent of normal zygotes. However, only the 7-day treatment persisted by affecting 2- and 8-cell stage embryos, while almost abolishing blastocyst development. Such effects were accompanied by abnormal ovarian histology, showing increased numbers of corpora luteus and elevated progesterone concentration in the serum. In addition, it was shown that the 7-day l-Cn treatment pushed maternal systemic immunity toward inflammation and immunosuppression by increasing CD11b-, CD25- and CD11bGr1-positive cells in spleen, which opposed the necessity for immunostimulation at these early stages of pregnancy. In conclusion, the results presented here demonstrated that elevated doses of l-Cn affect early stages of embryo development, leading to infertility.

Hybrid photoacoustic and optical imaging of pigments in vegetative tissues.

Pigments in vegetative tissues have been a subject of intense research during the previous decades, since they play an active role in several molecular mechanisms regarding plants' physiology and function. Towards this direction, the imaging modality that has been extensively employed and represents the state of the art for mapping pigments' distribution is confocal microscopy. Despite the advantage of a high spatial resolution however, confocal microscopy provides a rather limited imaging depth and requires necessarily strong fluorescence properties from the specimen under observation. To overcome such limitations, we propose a hybrid, photoacoustic and optical imaging methodology for the delineation of various vegetative pigments, such as chlorophylls, anthocyanins and betalains in different plant species. The superior sensitivity and the high contrast complementarity of the hybrid technique, render it a powerful alternative to the conventional fluorescence imaging modalities, significantly expanding the current state of the art.