title: High-Resolution and Quantitative X-Ray Phase-Contrast Tomography for Mouse Brain Research.
abstract: Imaging techniques for visualizing cerebral vasculature and distinguishing functional areas are essential and critical to the study of various brain diseases. In this paper, with the X-ray phase-contrast imaging technique, we proposed an experiment scheme for the ex vivo mouse brain study, achieving both high spatial resolution and improved soft-tissue contrast. This scheme includes two steps: sample preparation and volume reconstruction. In the first step, we use heparinized saline to displace the blood inside cerebral vessels and then replace it with air making air-filled mouse brain. After sample preparation, X-ray phase-contrast tomography is performed to collect the data for volume reconstruction. Here, we adopt a phase-retrieval combined filtered backprojection method to reconstruct its three-dimensional structure and redesigned the reconstruction kernel. To evaluate its performance, we carried out experiments at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. The results show that the air-tissue structured cerebral vasculatures are highly visible with propagation-based phase-contrast imaging and can be clearly resolved in reconstructed cross-images. Besides, functional areas, such as the corpus callosum, corpus striatum, and nuclei, are also clearly resolved. The proposed method is comparable with hematoxylin and eosin staining method but represents the studied mouse brain in three dimensions, offering a potential powerful tool for the research of brain disorders.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering and Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering and Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojie
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering and Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Falei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering and Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China ; Department of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Guo-Yuan
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering and Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D019295:Computational Biology; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D051379:Mice; D008858:Microscopy, Phase-Contrast / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D023421:Models, Animal; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data