title: Tomographic brain imaging with nucleolar detail and automatic cell counting.
abstract: Brain tissue evaluation is essential for gaining in-depth insight into its diseases and disorders. Imaging the human brain in three dimensions has always been a challenge on the cell level. In vivo methods lack spatial resolution, and optical microscopy has a limited penetration depth. Herein, we show that hard X-ray phase tomography can visualise a volume of up to 43 mm(3) of human post mortem or biopsy brain samples, by demonstrating the method on the cerebellum. We automatically identified 5,000 Purkinje cells with an error of less than 5% at their layer and determined the local surface density to 165 cells per mm(2) on average. Moreover, we highlight that three-dimensional data allows for the segmentation of sub-cellular structures, including dendritic tree and Purkinje cell nucleoli, without dedicated staining. The method suggests that automatic cell feature quantification of human tissues is feasible in phase tomograms obtained with isotropic resolution in a label-free manner.
authors: Biomaterials Science Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Gewerbestrasse 14, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland.
authors: Simone E
authors: SE
authors: Hieber
authors: Biomaterials Science Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Gewerbestrasse 14, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland.
authors: Christos
authors: C
authors: Bikis
authors: Biomaterials Science Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Gewerbestrasse 14, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland.
authors: Anna
authors: A
authors: Khimchenko
authors: Institute of Pathology, Department of Neuropathology, University Hospital of Basel, Schönbeinstrasse 40, 4001 Basel, Switzerland.
authors: Gabriel
authors: G
authors: Schweighauser
authors: Institute of Pathology, Department of Neuropathology, University Hospital of Basel, Schönbeinstrasse 40, 4001 Basel, Switzerland.
authors: Jürgen
authors: J
authors: Hench
authors: Biomaterials Science Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Gewerbestrasse 14, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland.|Medical Image Analysis Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Gewerbestrasse 14, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland.
authors: Natalia
authors: N
authors: Chicherova
authors: Biomaterials Science Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Gewerbestrasse 14, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland.
authors: Georg
authors: G
authors: Schulz
authors: Biomaterials Science Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Gewerbestrasse 14, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland.
authors: Bert
authors: B
authors: Müller
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001344:Autopsy / Q000379:methods; D002466:Cell Nucleolus; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000166:cytology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D011689:Purkinje Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*