4D CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY FOR VISUALIZATION OF BONE REMODELING

Until recently it was very time consuming and difficult to make three- dimensional (3D) images of newly formed bone. With the advent of confo cal technologies and increased computer power 3D imaging is greatly fa cilitated. In this paper we demonstrate that enhanced confocal visuali sation of newly formed bone is possible when bone is labelled in vivo sequentially with two osteotropic markers (xylenol orange and tetracyc line). Computer-assisted reconstruction of the confocal optical sectio ns was achieved through the use of the CONVEX Application Visualisatio n System (AVS). The computerised image data provides the researcher wi th ample flexibility in displaying the results. It was found that CSLM combined with AVS is excellent for visualising the remodelling proces s in three and four dimensions, in which the fourth dimension is time. With this approach visualised bone remodelling has become possible in a manner not easily achieved by other techniques.