Development of Body Movement During Early Stages of Chick Embryos

Kenji Moriya,Yuya Chiba,Masahi Kudo

doi:10.12792/jiiae.9.60

Abstract

In this study, we investigate developmental patterns of body movements that may play roles in normal embryonic growth using direct recordings of chick embryos during the early stages of development (72–125 h of incubation). In three individuals, embryonic body movements occurred intermittently and irregularly after 72-h incubation, and frequencies and sizes of movements increased with embryonic growth. Additionally, patterns of the body movements became periodic at 85 h in all individuals, and cyclic periods of body movements were then shortened and periodicities of movements gradually disappeared with embryonic development. If cyclic body movements are a common requirement during normal chick embryo growth, continuous monitoring of body movements could be used to predict abnormal embryonic growth. Future studies are required to investigate distinctive body movements and developmental patterns during embryonic growth in disease models and under various environmental conditions, such as under hypoxia.

Highlights

1.1 Chick embryo as models of fetal development Because chick embryos have all the nutrition necessary for growth inside their shells, the external conditions required for development are merely temperature and oxygen, leading to multiple advantages for studies of fetal development
We developed a system for continuously recording chick embryo developments over long periods using a small Charge Coupled Device (CCD) camera mounted on the egg, and investigated physiological developments of chick embryos, including those of heart structures and blood vessels, with minimal or no sacrifice
3.1 Development of embryonic body movements images were recorded for eight embryos, only those for three individuals were suitable for continuous analyses of locations, angles, and measurement foci, and body movements of these three embryos were calculated using the abovementioned image processing method

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Chick embryo as models of fetal development Because chick embryos have all the nutrition necessary for growth inside their shells, the external conditions required for development are merely temperature and oxygen, leading to multiple advantages for studies of fetal development. 1.2 Investigation of body movement patterns in chick embryos during the early stages of development It is well established that heart tissues in chick embryos are formed after about 30 h incubation, and that other organs, such as chorioallantoic membranes, are under development at this early stage. We developed a system for continuously recording chick embryo developments over long periods using a small Charge Coupled Device (CCD) camera mounted on the egg, and investigated physiological developments of chick embryos, including those of heart structures and blood vessels, with minimal or no sacrifice. We developed a system for assessing embryonic body movements from continuous and direct recordings of chick embryos, and investigated developments of body movement patterns during the early stages of chick embryogenesis

Experimental methods

Results

Discussions