Lovric Goran, Vogiatzis Oikonomidis Ioannis, Mokso Rajmund, Stampanoni Marco, Roth-Kleiner Matthias, Schittny Johannes C
Centre d'Imagerie BioMédicale, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5234 Villigen, Switzerland.
PLoS One. 2017 Sep 21;12(9):e0183979. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183979. eCollection 2017.
Using state-of-the-art X-ray tomographic microscopy we can image lung tissue in three dimensions in intact animals down to a micrometer precision. The structural complexity and hierarchical branching scheme of the lung at this level of details, however, renders the extraction of biologically relevant quantities particularly challenging. We have developed a methodology for a detailed description of lung inflation patterns by measuring the size and the local curvature of the parenchymal airspaces. These quantitative tools for morphological and topological analyses were applied to high-resolution murine 3D lung image data, inflated at different pressure levels under immediate post mortem conditions. We show for the first time direct indications of heterogeneous intra-lobar and inter-lobar distension patterns at the alveolar level. Furthermore, we did not find any indication that a cyclic opening-and-collapse (recruitment) of a large number of alveoli takes place.
使用最先进的X射线断层显微镜，我们可以在完整动物体内以微米级精度对肺组织进行三维成像。然而，在这种细节水平下，肺的结构复杂性和分级分支结构使得提取生物学相关量极具挑战性。我们开发了一种方法，通过测量实质气腔的大小和局部曲率来详细描述肺的膨胀模式。这些用于形态学和拓扑分析的定量工具被应用于高分辨率小鼠三维肺图像数据，这些数据是在死后立即在不同压力水平下充气的。我们首次直接表明在肺泡水平存在叶内和叶间异质性扩张模式。此外，我们没有发现任何迹象表明大量肺泡会发生周期性的开放和塌陷（再充盈）。
