Three‐dimensional image analytical detection of intussusceptive pillars in murine lung

Abstract

A variety of diseases can lead to loss of lung tissue. Currently, this can be treated only symptomatically. In mice, a complete compensatory lung growth within 21 days after resection of the left lung can be observed. Understanding and transferring this concept of compensatory lung growth to humans would greatly improve therapeutic options. Lung growth is always accompanied by a process called angiogenesis forming new capillary blood vessels from preexisting ones. Among the processes during lung growth, the formation of transluminal tissue pillars within the capillary vessels (intussusceptive pillars) is observed. Therefore, pillars can be understood as an indicator for active angiogenesis and microvascular remodelling. Thus, their detection is very valuable when aiming at characterization of compensatory lung growth. In a vascular corrosion cast, these pillars appear as small holes that pierce the vessels. So far, pillars were detected visually only based on 2D images. Our approach relies on high-resolution synchrotron microcomputed tomographic images. With a voxel size of 370 nm we exploit the spatial information provided by this imaging technique and present the first algorithm to semiautomatically detect intussusceptive pillars. An at least semiautomatic detection is essential in lung research, as manual pillar detection is not feasible due to the complexity and size of the 3D structure. Using our algorithm, several thousands of pillars can be detected and subsequently analysed, e.g. regarding their spatial arrangement, size and shape with an acceptable amount of human interaction. In this paper, we apply our novel pillar detection algorithm to compute pillar densities of different specimens. These are prepared such that they show different growing states. Comparing the corresponding pillar densities allows to investigate lung growth over time.

Segmentation of Dilated Hemorrhoidal Veins in Hemorrhoidal Disease

“…We have observed a similar process of vessel segmentation in sinusoidal hemangioma [Díaz-Flores et al, 2018], a process with intravascular papillae in which thin septa completely or incompletely separate vascular spaces [Calonje and Fletcher, 1991;Halawar et al, 2013;Salemis, 2017]. The influence of hemodynamic conditions (intraluminal flow fields) on the location, orientation, and periodicity of the developing pillars highlighted in intussusceptive angiogenesis [Djonov et al, 2002;Le Noble et al, 2005;Turhan et al, 2008;Filipovic et al, 2009;Miele et al, 2009;Tsuda et al, 2009;Lee et al, 2011;Ackermann et al, 2013;Föhst et al, 2015] may also participate in papillary and septa formation in hemorrhoidal veins.…”

“…These angiogenic-based processes are linked to hemodynamic conditions [Djonov et el 2002;Le Noble et al, 2005;Filipovic et al, 2009;Miele et al, 2009;Lee et al, 2011;Föhst et al, 2015], including the influence of intraluminal flow fields [Turhan et al, 2008;Tsuda et al, 2009;Lee et al, 2011;Ackermann et al, 2013]. In dilated veins of hemorrhoidal disease, the peculiar form of vascular remodeling described herein facilitates division of the vein lumen by slender intravascular septa.…”

“…Vascular segmentation is a remodeling phenomenon linked to hemodynamic conditions [Djonov et al, 2002;Le Noble et al, 2005;Filipovic et al, 2009;Miele et al, 2009;Lee et al, 2011;Föhst et al, 2015] and therefore of clinical importance. This phenomenon has been described in dilated ovarian pedicle veins of nude mice after ovariectomy [Patan et al, 2001a], and in both ovariectomy and human tumor implantation [Patan et al, 2001b].…”

Angiogenesis Research

“…Recent studies have reported that intussusceptive angiogenesis is not only crucial during development but also it is a dominant mechanism of angiogenesis in tissue repair and regeneration. 12,13 Our portfolio analysis showed that only a few awards (0-3 grants per year) research intussusceptive angiogenesis, which may represent an understudied area.…”

A Novel Image Change Detection Model and Optimization Algorithm based on Game Theory under the Bounded Rationality Conditions

“…They introduce and solve the problem of Byzantine fault tolerant distributed quickest change detection in both continuous and discrete-time setups. More reviews could be found in [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].…”