Koji Asami and Akihiko Irimajiri 2000 Phys. Med. Biol. 45 3285 doi:10.1088/0031-9155/45/11/312
Koji Asami1 and Akihiko Irimajiri2
Show affiliationsDielectric spectroscopy has been used to monitor the early embryogenesis of frog (Xenopus laevis) eggs. The dielectric spectra of a single egg in suspension over the frequency range 10 Hz to 10 MHz were collected at various stages of its development. The uncleaved egg showed a dielectric dispersion with a narrow distribution of relaxation times. After the first cleavage, the dielectric spectra were mainly composed of two subdispersions. In the cleavage process, up to the morula stage, changes in the spectra were quantitatively simulated by the `cell-aggregate' model in which the embryo is regarded as a concentrated suspension of shell-spheres that correspond to the blastomeres (i.e. the cells within the embryo). In the stages from the morula to the blastula, the changes in the dielectric spectra were explained as due to a reduction in the size of the blastomere accompanied by an expansion of the blastocoel (i.e. the central cavity in the embryo) using the `vesicle-inclusion' model that is a cell aggregate covered with a less conducting shell corresponding to the outermost layer of tightly interconnected cells.
87.64.-t Spectroscopic and microscopic techniques in biophysics and medical physics
Issue 11 (November 2000)
Received 13 April 2000, in final form 8 August 2000
Koji Asami and Akihiko Irimajiri 2000 Phys. Med. Biol. 45 3285
Dietrich Schlichthärle 2001 Meas. Sci. Technol. 12 2211
D W O Rogers 2006 Phys. Med. Biol. 51 R287
K Bera et al 2001 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 34 1479
S H Liao et al 2003 Supercond. Sci. Technol. 16 1426
Gh Adam and S Adam 2007 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 40 11205
Michel Vittot 2004 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 37 6337
Sune F Nielsen et al 1999 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 32 6757
Jan Naudts and Maciej Kuna 2001 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 34 9265
William B Handler et al 2006 Phys. Med. Biol. 51 2479