What can you sea with MRI?

Dr. Ziegler et al demonstrate what you can see with MRI and CT with regard to their area of interest: sea urchins (Echinodermata: Echinoidea).

Sea urchins are fascinating. Using medical imaging to look inside them, non-invasively is even more fascinating. Normally specimen (including biopsy samples in the hospital) are sliced very thin, like 5 microns, and stained with special dyes. Here’s an example.

Histology example

http://goo.gl/zUoeH

One of the things I do in my research is look for ways to get similar information non-invasively, e.g. with MRI. For a human biopsy sample you can probably see a purpose. For a sea urchin, it might be hard to sea a purpose. However, there are many things that we learn in basic science that we can turn into applied science. For example, chiton are being used to learn about their stone cutting teeth.

No Chiton on science

http://goo.gl/iW1DX and http://goo.gl/TAALt from the comments.

Sea urchins are amazing too. From the Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_urchin

☼ They have both water and blood based vascular systems

☼ They have self-sharpening, calcium carbonate teeth, that can chew through stone.

☼ The larvae start out with bilateral symmetry and develop fivefold symmetry.

The first set of images below are from:

Opportunities and challenges for digital morphology

Ziegler et al Biology Direct 2010, 5:45

http://goo.gl/x8nMS

If you download figure 3 and have Acrobat 8 or higher, you can actually move the image around to view different angles (example screenshot; second image below).

In the article they describe the need for a standardize repository for images such as MRI and CT, so that you can “virtually slice” through each specimen, similar to the histology I described. Not everyone has CT or MRI so it makes sense to have an online repository.

You can see an example of such a repository here:

microCT of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, (Purple Sea Urchin)

Ms. Ashley Gosselin-Ildari – Stony Brook University via DigiMorph

http://goo.gl/llLlI

They describe the MRI methods here:

Systematic comparison and reconstruction of sea urchin (Echinoidea) internal anatomy: a novel approach using magnetic resonance imaging

Ziegler et al BMC Biology 2008, 6:33

http://goo.gl/rkUcX

h/t Alex Waters for making me aware of sea urchin MRI.

For background on MRI and CT see my #CHMedicalImagingSeries

Medical Imaging 101 pt 3: MRI

http://goo.gl/UVbiU

Medical Imaging 101 pt 2: CT

http://goo.gl/IHaFw

#ScienceSunday