Research and Development, MBF Bioscience, Williston, Vermont.
Department of Neuroanatomy, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, Washington.
J Comp Neurol. 2019 Sep 1;527(13):2200-2211. doi: 10.1002/cne.24635. Epub 2019 Feb 24.
Identification and delineation of brain regions in histologic mouse brain sections is especially pivotal for many neurogenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and connectomics studies, yet this process is prone to observer error and bias. Here we present a novel brain navigation system, named NeuroInfo, whose general principle is similar to that of a global positioning system (GPS) in a car. NeuroInfo automatically navigates an investigator through the complex microscopic anatomy of histologic sections of mouse brains (thereafter: "experimental mouse brain sections"). This is achieved by automatically registering a digital image of an experimental mouse brain section with a three-dimensional (3D) digital mouse brain atlas that is essentially based on the third version of the Allen Mouse Brain Common Coordinate Framework (CCF v3), retrieving graphical region delineations and annotations from the 3D digital mouse brain atlas, and superimposing this information onto the digital image of the experimental mouse brain section on a computer screen. By doing so, NeuroInfo helps in solving the long-standing problem faced by researchers investigating experimental mouse brain sections under a light microscope-that of correctly identifying the distinct brain regions contained within the experimental mouse brain sections. Specifically, NeuroInfo provides an intuitive, readily-available computer microscopy tool to enhance researchers' ability to correctly identify specific brain regions in experimental mouse brain sections. Extensive validation studies of NeuroInfo demonstrated that this novel technology performs remarkably well in accurately delineating regions that are large and/or located in the dorsal parts of mouse brains, independent on whether the sections were imaged with fluorescence or bright-field microscopy. This novel navigation system provides a highly efficient way for registering a digital image of an experimental mouse brain section with the 3D digital mouse brain atlas in a minute and accurate delineation of the image in real-time.
在组织学小鼠脑切片中识别和描绘脑区对于许多神经基因组学、转录组学、蛋白质组学和连接组学研究尤为关键，但这一过程容易受到观察者误差和偏差的影响。在这里，我们提出了一种新的脑导航系统，命名为NeuroInfo，其基本原理类似于汽车中的全球定位系统（GPS）。NeuroInfo 可以自动引导研究人员穿越组织学切片的复杂微观解剖结构（此后称为“实验性小鼠脑切片”）。这是通过自动将实验性小鼠脑切片的数字图像与基于 Allen Mouse Brain Common Coordinate Framework （CCF v3）的三维（3D）数字小鼠脑图谱进行配准来实现的，从 3D 数字小鼠脑图谱中检索图形区域描绘和注释，并将此信息叠加到计算机屏幕上实验性小鼠脑切片的数字图像上。通过这样做，NeuroInfo 有助于解决研究人员在使用显微镜研究实验性小鼠脑切片时长期面临的问题，即正确识别实验性小鼠脑切片中包含的不同脑区。具体来说，NeuroInfo 提供了一种直观、易于使用的计算机显微镜工具，可增强研究人员在实验性小鼠脑切片中正确识别特定脑区的能力。NeuroInfo 的广泛验证研究表明，这项新技术在准确描绘位于大脑背部的大区域和/或区域方面表现出色，而与使用荧光显微镜还是明场显微镜成像无关。这种新的导航系统为在一分钟内将实验性小鼠脑切片的数字图像与 3D 数字小鼠脑图谱进行配准，并实时精确地对图像进行描绘提供了一种高效的方法。
