Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) are the leading preventable cause of birth defects and lifelong neurodevelopmental delays, affecting up to 40,000 infants each year in the US alone. Despite its significant prevalence, there is currently no effective way to predict FASD during pregnancy, and no approved treatments exist once damage has occurred.
To address this challenge, Dr. Jiang’s team has developed a new 3D photoacoustic tomography (PAT) imaging system, integrating 1,024 ultrasound detectors with a high-precision rotational scanning strategy to dramatically improve spatial resolution and image quality. This non-invasive technology uses short laser pulses to generate ultrasound signals, enabling high-resolution 3D in vivo visualization of in utero embryos in a pregnant mouse. In this project, the system plays a central role in tracking fetal brain vascular development and oxygenation throughout gestation and into adulthood, allowing direct visualization of how maternal alcohol exposure alters cerebral vessel structure, function, and mitochondrial activity.
Figure: (a) Schematic of the custom-built 1024-element 3D photoacoustic tomography (PAT) imaging system designed for prenatal alcohol exposure studies. (b) 3D PAT images of mouse fetuses at E16 (left) and E18 (right) of gestation, showing brain and body vascular structures in detail. (c) A series of 2D PAT images (along XY planes) of an E16 fetus at 810 nm.
This work offers unprecedented capability to reveal the biological pathways linking prenatal alcohol exposure to long-term cerebrovascular and neurological outcomes. By providing more accurate, detailed, and early insights into these changes, our research lays the foundation for earlier diagnosis and more effective, targeted interventions, ultimately reducing the lifelong burden of FASD.