A stunning image from ‘s team showing a rare congenital defect that causes a kidney to have two ureters wins the School of Medicine’s 2024 Art in Science Competition!
A snapshot of this image’s research significance
What does this image show?
This image shows a postnatal mouse kidney immunostained for the renal arterial tree with alpha-smooth muscle actin (magenta) and for nerves with tubulin beta class-III (green). An oil filter overlay was added to the final image for artistic purposes. The image depicts a rare urinary tract congenital defect resulting in duplicated ureters in a mouse. Individuals with use two ureters to drain urine from a single kidney.
How does this image help advance the research of the O’Brien lab group?
This image was taken as part of a larger cohort, where we look at the interplay between vascularization and innervation in the kidney at different developmental time points. The nerves and vasculature in the kidney are closely linked throughout development, and our goal is to understand how vascularization and innervation of the kidney help support proper organogenesis. We utilize this type of whole tissue imaging on genetic knockouts or ablations to assess impacts on the whole organ. The postnatal mouse kidney in this particular image has a duplicated ureter and mirrors a similar human congenital anomaly.聽聽
How was this image taken?
The kidney was imaged with the LaVision Ultramicroscope II LightSheet using an Olympus MVPLAPO 2X/0.5 objective at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Microscopy Service Laboratory.
This image will be on display on the first floor of Bondurant Hall from October 21 – October 25th in celebration of Research Week!