Clinic for General-, Visceral- and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 420, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
Medical Faculty, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2024 May 2;14(1):10136. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-60254-9.
Exocrine and endocrine pancreas are interconnected anatomically and functionally, with vasculature facilitating bidirectional communication. Our understanding of this network remains limited, largely due to two-dimensional histology and missing combination with three-dimensional imaging. In this study, a multiscale 3D-imaging process was used to analyze a porcine pancreas. Clinical computed tomography, digital volume tomography, micro-computed tomography and Synchrotron-based propagation-based imaging were applied consecutively. Fields of view correlated inversely with attainable resolution from a whole organism level down to capillary structures with a voxel edge length of 2.0 µm. Segmented vascular networks from 3D-imaging data were correlated with tissue sections stained by immunohistochemistry and revealed highly vascularized regions to be intra-islet capillaries of islets of Langerhans. Generated 3D-datasets allowed for three-dimensional qualitative and quantitative organ and vessel structure analysis. Beyond this study, the method shows potential for application across a wide range of patho-morphology analyses and might possibly provide microstructural blueprints for biotissue engineering.
外分泌腺和内分泌腺在解剖和功能上是相互关联的，血管系统促进双向通讯。由于二维组织学和缺少与三维成像的结合，我们对这个网络的理解仍然有限。在这项研究中，使用了一种多尺度 3D 成像过程来分析猪胰腺。连续应用了临床计算机断层扫描、数字体积断层扫描、微计算机断层扫描和基于同步辐射的传播成像。视场与从整个生物体水平到毛细血管结构的可达分辨率成反比，体素边缘长度为 2.0µm。从 3D 成像数据分割的血管网络与免疫组织化学染色的组织切片相关联，显示富含血管的区域为胰岛内胰岛的毛细血管。生成的 3D 数据集允许对器官和血管结构进行三维定性和定量分析。除了这项研究，该方法还有望在广泛的病理形态分析中得到应用，并可能为生物组织工程提供微观结构蓝图。
