Confocal imaging of early heart development in Xenopus laevis

Xenopus laevis provides a number of advantages to studies on cardiovascular development. The embryos are fairly large, are easy to obtain, and can dev elop at ambient temperature in simple buffer solutions. Although classic de scriptions of heart development exist, the ability to use whole-mount immun ohistochemical methods and confocal microscopy may enhance the ability to u nderstand both normal and experimentally perturbed cardiovascular developme nt. We have started to examine the early stages of cardiac development in X enopus, seeking to identify antibodies and fixatives that allow easy examin ation of the developing heart. We have used monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) ra ised against bovine cardiac troponin T and chicken tropomyosin to visualize cardiac muscle, a goat antibody recognizing bovine type VI collagen to sta in the lining of vessels, and the JB3 mAb raised against chicken fibrillin, which allows the visualization of a variety of cardiovascular tissues duri ng early development. Results from embryonic stages 24-46 are presented. (C ) 2000 Academic Press.