An Automated Approach for Three-dimensional Quantification of Fibrillar Structures in Optically Cleared Soft Biological Tissues

Overview

Journal J R Soc Interface

Specialties Biology
Biomedical Engineering
Biophysics

Date 2012 Dec 28

PMID 23269845

Citations 33

Authors

Andreas J Schriefl

Heimo Wolinski

Peter Regitnig

Sepp D Kohlwein

Gerhard A Holzapfel

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We present a novel approach allowing for a simple, fast and automated morphological analysis of three-dimensional image stacks (z-stacks) featuring fibrillar structures from optically cleared soft biological tissues. Five non-atherosclerotic tissue samples from human abdominal aortas were used to outline the multi-purpose methodology, applicable to various tissue types. It yields a three-dimensional orientational distribution of relative amplitudes, representing the original collagen fibre morphology, identifies regions of isotropy where no preferred fibre orientations are observed and determines structural parameters throughout anisotropic regions for the analysis and numerical modelling of biomechanical quantities such as stress and strain. Our method combines optical tissue clearing with second-harmonic generation imaging, Fourier-based image analysis and maximum-likelihood estimation for distribution fitting. With a new sample preparation method for arteries, we present, for the first time to our knowledge, a continuous three-dimensional distribution of collagen fibres throughout the entire thickness of the aortic wall, revealing novel structural and organizational insights into the three arterial layers.

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