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Toward improved management of developmental defects and reproductive disorders, we recently established a set of unique in vivo methods for investigation of early embryonic development and reproduction in mouse models. Using functional optical coherence tomography (OCT), we investigate female mouse reproductive tract in vivo through an implantable intravital window. Our approach allows for live, dynamic volumetric imaging of the mouse Fallopian tube (oviduct) with micro-scale spatial resolution. Recently, we established a tomographic imaging technique capable of mapping both the cilia location and the cilia beat frequency in the intact mouse oviduct in vivo. We utilize both the amplitude and the frequency position of the major peak from the ciliary motion spectrum, and reconstruct, for the first time, high-resolution mapping of both cilia location and CBF through tissue layers in vivo. We established a method of sperm activity measurement, which relies on analysis of unique tortious sperm trajectories. We introduced standard deviation (SD) of the direction variation (SDofDV) as a measure of activity. This method was used in vivo to directly track multiple motile sperm inside the mouse oviduct, revealing new biological findings. Potentially this study will provide new insight on the process of mammalian fertilization in its native state and lead to a better understanding of pathologies resulting in infertility.
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