Lai Ruogu, Zhao Caiping, Guo Wanyi, Xiao Yao, Li Runze, Liu Liang, Pan Hudan
State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China.
State Key Laboratory of Dampness Syndrome of Chinese Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510000, China.
Heliyon. 2023 Apr 23;9(5):e15681. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15681. eCollection 2023 May.
Microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) is powerful for assessment of the progression of lung fibrosis in animal model, but current whole lung analysis (WLA) methods are time-consuming. Here, a longitudinal and regional analysis (LRA) method was developed to assess fibrosis easily and quickly by micro-CT.
Firstly, we investigated the distribution pattern of lesions in BLM-induced pulmonary fibrosis mice. Then, the VOIs for LRA were selected based on the anatomical locations and we compared the robustness, accuracy, repeatability, analysis time of LRA to WLA. Additionally, LRA was applied to assess different stages of pulmonary fibrosis, and was validated with conventional endpoint measurements (such as lung hydroxyproline and histopathology).
The lesions of fibrosis in 66 bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis mice were mostly in the middle and upper parts of lungs. By applying LRA, the percentages of high-density voxels in selected volumes of interest (VOIs) were well correlated with that in WLA both at Day 7 and Day 21 after bleomycin induction (R = 0.8784 and 0.8464, respectively). The relative standard deviation (RSD) of the percentage of high-density voxels in the VOIs was lower than that of WLA ( < 0.05). The cost time of LRA was shorter than that of WLA ( < 0.05) and the accuracy of LRA was further confirmed by the histological analysis and biochemical quantification of hydroxyproline.
LRA is probably an easier and more time-saving method to assess fibrosis formation and evaluate treatment efficacy.
微型计算机断层扫描（micro-CT）在评估动物模型中肺纤维化进展方面具有强大功能，但目前的全肺分析（WLA）方法耗时较长。在此，我们开发了一种纵向和区域分析（LRA）方法，通过micro-CT轻松快速地评估纤维化。
首先，我们研究了博来霉素诱导的肺纤维化小鼠中病变的分布模式。然后，根据解剖位置选择用于LRA的感兴趣区域（VOIs），并比较了LRA与WLA的稳健性、准确性、可重复性和分析时间。此外，LRA被应用于评估肺纤维化的不同阶段，并通过传统的终点测量（如肺羟脯氨酸和组织病理学）进行验证。
66只博来霉素（BLM）诱导的肺纤维化小鼠的纤维化病变主要位于肺的中上部。通过应用LRA，在博来霉素诱导后第7天和第21天，选定感兴趣体积（VOIs）中高密度体素的百分比与WLA中的百分比均具有良好的相关性（分别为R = 0.8784和0.8464）。VOIs中高密度体素百分比的相对标准偏差（RSD）低于WLA（<0.05）。LRA的耗时比WLA短（<0.05），并且组织学分析和羟脯氨酸的生化定量进一步证实了LRA的准确性。
LRA可能是一种更简便、更省时的方法，用于评估纤维化形成和评估治疗效果。
