Three-Dimensional Imaging of Nerve Tissue by X-Ray Phase-Contrast Microtomography

Abstract

We show that promising information about the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a peripheral nerve can be obtained by x-ray phase-contrast microtomography (p-microCT; Beckmann, F., U. Bonse, F. Busch, and O. Günnewig, 1997. J. Comp. Assist. Tomogr. 21:539-553). P-microCT measures electronic charge density, which for most substances is proportional to mass density in fairly good approximation. The true point-by-point variation of density is thus determined in 3D at presently 1 mg/cm3 standard error (SE). The intracranial part of the rat trigeminal nerve analyzed for the presence of early schwannoma "microtumors" displayed a detailed density structure on p-microCT density maps. The average density of brain and nerve tissue was measured to range from 0.990 to 0.994 g/cm3 and from 1.020 to 1.035 g/cm3, respectively. The brain-nerve interface was well delineated. Within the nerve tissue, a pattern of nerve fibers could be seen that followed the nerve axis and contrasted against the bulk by 7 to 10 mg/cm3 density modulation. Based on the fact that regions of tumor growth have an increased number density of cell nuclei, and hence of the higher z element phosphorus, it may become possible to detect very early neural "microtumors" through increases of average density on the order of 10 to 15 mg/cm3 by using this method.

X-ray phase-contrast computed tomography visualizes the microstructure and degradation profile of implanted biodegradable scaffolds after spinal cord injury

“…6(g)]. This is consistent with the density of nerve tissue estimated using crystal-interferometerbased imaging, which ranged from 1.020 to 1.035 g ml À1 (Beckmann et al, 1999).…”

“…Crystal-interferometer-based phase-contrast imaging techniques have ultra-high sensitivity for phase objects including biological samples, and phase-contrast tomography enables observation of slight density differences in biological soft tissues. In fact, crystal-interferometer-based phase-contrast images can successfully visualize the microstructure of various tissues (Momose et al, 1996;Beckmann et al, 1999;Shinohara et al, 2008;Connor et al, 2009;Wu et al, 2009). However, this system requires highly brilliant X-rays, such as synchrotron radiation (Shinohara et al, 2008;Wu et al, 2009).…”

Functional morphology of Tethya species (Porifera): 1. Quantitative 3D-analysis of Tethya wilhelma by synchrotron radiation based X-ray microtomography

“…By controlled rotation of the sample in precisely defined steps a set of radiograms is created, which is subsequently transformed to a 3D-dataset by algorithms using filtered backprojection (Bonse and Busch 1996;Beckmann et al 1999a;Beckmann et al 1999b). X-ray based microscopic and microtomographic techniques method is mainly used for material sciences, but synchrotron based X-rays have recently shown its potency for medical and biological questions (Hoernschemeyer et al 2002;Westneat et al 2003;Jaecques et al 2004).…”

3D angioarchitecture changes after spinal cord injury in rats using synchrotron radiation phase-contrast tomography

“…[16][17][18] Reports of the application of SR-PCT for neurovascular imaging are limited. 19 In the present study, we used SR-PCT as a high-resolution imaging tool to investigate the 3D angioarchitecture of the normal spinal cord and the alterations associated with acute SCI.…”