Biphasic fusion of the murine posterior frontal suture.

Background: Craniosynostosis is the premature fusion of cranial sutures early in development. Mice are commonly used to study the mechanisms driving both normal and pathologic cranial suture development. Despite their frequency of use as a model, the time course of bone formation and mineralization during fusion of mouse posterior frontal suture is not well defined.

Interrelationship of cranial suture fusion, basicranial development, and resynostosis following suturectomy in twist1(+/-) mice, a murine model of Saethre-Chotzen syndrome.

The interrelationships among suture fusion, basicranial development, and subsequent resynostosis in syndromic craniosynostosis have yet to be examined. The objectives of this study were to determine the potential relationship between suture fusion and cranial base development in a model of syndromic craniosynostosis and to assess the effects of the syndrome on resynostosis following suturectomy. To do this, posterior frontal and coronal suture fusion, postnatal development of sphenooccipital synchondrosis, and resynostosis in Twist1(+/+) (WT) and Twist1(+/-) litter-matched mice (a model for Saethre-Chotzen syndrome) were quantified by evaluating μCT images with advanced image-processing algorithms.

Algorithm to assess cranial suture fusion with varying and discontinuous mineral density.

One of the most difficult challenges in medical imaging is the accurate segmentation of mineralized tissues. This process is complicated when studying developmental or regenerative processes due to the changes in mineral density that these tissues undergo over time. To address these limitations an algorithm was developed to enable the use of computed tomography (CT) to study tissues of varying and heterogeneous mineralization.