A versatile pipeline for the multi-scale digital reconstruction and quantitative analysis of 3D tissue architecture
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany
Abstract
A prerequisite for the systems biology analysis of tissues is an accurate digital 3D reconstruction of tissue structure based on images of markers covering multiple scales. Here, we designed a flexible pipeline for the multi-scale reconstruction and quantitative morphological analysis of tissue architecture from microscopy images. Our pipeline includes newly developed algorithms that address specific challenges of thick dense tissue reconstruction. Our implementation allows for a flexible workflow, scalable to high-throughput analysis and applicable to various mammalian tissues. We applied it to the analysis of liver tissue and extracted quantitative parameters of sinusoids, bile canaliculi and cell shapes, recognizing different liver cell types with high accuracy. Using our platform, we uncovered an unexpected zonation pattern of hepatocytes with different size, nuclei and DNA content, thus revealing new features of liver tissue organization. The pipeline also proved effective to analyse lung and kidney tissue, demonstrating its generality and robustness.
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Ethics
Animal experimentation: All animal studies were conducted in accordance with German animal welfare legislation and in strict pathogen-free conditions in the animal facility of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany. Protocols were approved by the Institutional Animal Welfare Officer (Tierschutzbeauftragter) and all necessary licenses were obtained from the regional Ethical Commission for Animal Experimentation of Dresden, Germany (Tierversuchskommission, Landesdirektion Dresden)(License number: AZ 24-9168.24-9/2012-1, AZ 24-9168.11-9/2012-3).
Copyright
© 2015, Morales-Navarrete et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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A versatile pipeline for the multi-scale digital reconstruction and quantitative analysis of 3D tissue architecture
eLife 4:e11214.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.11214
