Development of the early embryo

3D rendered flourescent image of a very early mouse embryo at around 5.5 days post fertilisation. The embryo has been labelled with two flourescent markers, one highlights the cell nuclei (Dapi) and shows the cells (grey) the other highlights the gap juntions (ZO-1) and highlights the region between the cells and shows the orientaion and movement of these cells (purple). The mice used in the study also carried a transgene, which means the embryo express green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the expression of a specific gene, which in this case is Hex. Hex is expressed in the anterior visceral endoderm (AVE) cells - shown here in green. These cells are responsible for determining the head / tail orientation of the embryo body. The whole embryo was imaged to get a stack of images that were then 3D rendered to get a surface view.