White matter imaging of ethanol-fixed rat brain by phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography
- PMID: 34259019
- DOI: 10.1177/02841851211030776
White matter imaging of ethanol-fixed rat brain by phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography
Abstract
Background: Phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography imaging (PCI) based on crystal X-ray interferometry can detect minute density differences within biological soft tissues without contrast agents. Ethanol fixation yields increased tissue-background density differences due to the dehydrating and delipidifying effects of ethanol.
Purpose: To obtain high image contrast of cerebral white matter structures in PCI, tissue fixation using ethanol and routinely used formalin have been examined.
Material and methods: Ethanol-fixed (EF) (n = 4) and formalin-fixed (FF) (n = 4) rat brains were imaged by crystal X-ray interferometry-based PCI. Tissue staining/microscopy was also performed for histological comparison and myelin density evaluation. Three-dimensional white matter tract images were reconstructed.
Results: Superior image contrast was obtained in the images of EF brains (EF images) compared to those of formalin-fixed brains (FF images), particularly for white matter structures. Significant density differences between the white matter structures and hippocampus (P < 0.01)/thalamus (P < 0.001) were observed in the EF, but not FF, images. Ethanol fixation enhanced the image contrast of white matter tracts by approximately sixfold compared to formalin fixation, and close agreement (r2 = 0.97; P < 0.05) between the density values on the CT images and the myelin density values in histological images was observed for the EF brains. Three-dimensional reconstruction of the white matter tracts was possible from the EF images, but not FF images.
Conclusion: Ethanol fixation resulted in marked contrast enhancement of cerebral white matter structures in PCI. Thus, high-resolution PCI using ethanol for tissue fixation could be valuable for experimental neurological studies and postmortem neuropathology evaluation.
Keywords: Phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography; crystal X-ray interferometer; ethanol fixation; rat brain; white matter.
Similar articles
-
Enhanced renal image contrast by ethanol fixation in phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography.J Synchrotron Radiat. 2014 Jul;21(Pt 4):795-800. doi: 10.1107/S1600577514010558. Epub 2014 Jun 12. J Synchrotron Radiat. 2014. PMID: 24971977
-
High-Spatial-Resolution Three-dimensional Imaging of Human Spinal Cord and Column Anatomy with Postmortem X-ray Phase-Contrast Micro-CT.Radiology. 2021 Jan;298(1):135-146. doi: 10.1148/radiol.2020201622. Epub 2020 Oct 27. Radiology. 2021. PMID: 33107800
-
Virtual histology of an entire mouse brain from formalin fixation to paraffin embedding. Part 1: Data acquisition, anatomical feature segmentation, tracking global volume and density changes.J Neurosci Methods. 2021 Dec 1;364:109354. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2021.109354. Epub 2021 Sep 13. J Neurosci Methods. 2021. PMID: 34529981
-
[Phase-contrast x-ray imaging with x-ray interferometer for medical applications].Igaku Butsuri. 2002;22(1):30-7. Igaku Butsuri. 2002. PMID: 12766294 Review. Japanese.
-
Quantitative X-ray phase contrast computed tomography with grating interferometry : Biomedical applications of quantitative X-ray grating-based phase contrast computed tomography.Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2021 Dec;48(13):4171-4188. doi: 10.1007/s00259-021-05259-6. Epub 2021 Apr 13. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2021. PMID: 33846846 Free PMC article. Review.
MeSH terms
Substances
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Miscellaneous