A method for evaluating the murine pulmonary vasculature using micro-computed tomography

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• 作者：Michael R. Phillips ; MD^a ; Scott M. Moore ; MD^a ; ^b ; Mansi Shah ; MD^a ; Clara Lee^c ; Yueh Z. Lee ; MD^c ; James E. Faber ; PhD^b ; Sean E. McLean ; MD^a ; ^{sean_mclean@med.unc.edu}
• 关键词：Pulmonary circulation ; Lung development ; Computed tomography
• 刊名：Journal of Surgical Research
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：207
• 期：Complete
• 页码：115-122
• 全文大小：2507 K
• 卷排序：207

文摘

Significant mortality and morbidity are associated with alterations in the pulmonary vasculature. While techniques have been described for quantitative morphometry of whole-lung arterial trees in larger animals, no methods have been described in mice. We report a method for the quantitative assessment of murine pulmonary arterial vasculature using high-resolution computed tomography scanning.MethodsMice were harvested at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 3 months of age. The pulmonary artery vascular tree was pressure perfused to maximal dilation with a radio-opaque casting material with viscosity and pressure set to prevent capillary transit and venous filling. The lungs were fixed and scanned on a specimen computed tomography scanner at 8-μm resolution, and the vessels were segmented. Vessels were grouped into categories based on lumen diameter and branch generation.ResultsRobust high-resolution segmentation was achieved, permitting detailed quantitation of pulmonary vascular morphometrics. As expected, postnatal lung development was associated with progressive increase in small-vessel number and arterial branching complexity.ConclusionsThese methods for quantitative analysis of the pulmonary vasculature in postnatal and adult mice provide a useful tool for the evaluation of mouse models of disease that affect the pulmonary vasculature.