Automated computer-assisted quantitative analysis of intact murine lungs at the alveolar scale
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Date
2017
Publication Type
Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
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.
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published
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12 (9)
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Publisher
PLOS
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03817 - Stampanoni, Marco F.M. / Stampanoni, Marco F.M.
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Funding
135550 - In-vivo study of lung physiology with sub-second X-ray tomographic microscopy (SNF)