Optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows insight into the fascinating dynamics of neural tube closure during embryonic development. Neural tube closure is a critical feature of the central nervous system morphogenesis during development. Failure of this process leads to neural tube defects (NTDs), one of the most common forms of human congenital defects, with an occurrence rate of 1 in 1000 pregnancies in the United States. Despite numerous studies on neurulation in various animal models, developmental perturbations that induce mammalian NTDs remain poorly defined, limiting progress in formulating strategies to prevent human NTDs.
 
In this latest paper from Irina Larina's laboratory, Shang Wang et al. present a feasibility study of 4D OCT for live imaging and analysis of cranial neural tube closure in mouse embryos. The authors present very impressive results of hours-long acquisition time, time-lapse volumetric videos on head fold closure and specifically show the button-like closure in the midbrain region which is distinct from the zipper-like closure in the hindbrain region. The temporally and spatially resolved measurements of the distance between neural folds support the observation and clearly indicate the closure mechanisms from a quantitative point of view. These results very elegantly demonstrate that OCT can provide the phenotypic characterization of defects in the mouse neural tube development. I agree with the authors' assessment that their approach and the findings from their work should facilitate novel studies to address the etiology of this and other congenital defects of human neural development.
 
 

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