Nanostructure-specific X-ray tomography reveals myelin levels, integrity and axon orientations in mouse and human nervous tissue
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2021

Myelin insulates neuronal axons and enables fast signal transmission, constituting a key component of brain development, aging and disease. Yet, myelin-specific imaging of macroscopic samples remains a challenge. Here, we exploit myelin’s nanostructural periodicity, and use small-angle X-ray scattering tensor tomography (SAXS-TT) to simultaneously quantify myelin levels, nanostructural integrity and axon orientations in nervous tissue. Proof-of-principle is demonstrated in whole mouse brain, mouse spinal cord and human white and gray matter samples. Outcomes are validated by 2D/3D histology and compared to MRI measurements sensitive to myelin and axon orientations. Specificity to nanostructure is exemplified by concomitantly imaging different myelin types with distinct periodicities. Finally, we illustrate the method’s sensitivity towards myelin-related diseases by quantifying myelin alterations in dysmyelinated mouse brain. This non-destructive, stain-free molecular imaging approach enables quantitative studies of myelination within and across samples during development, aging, disease and treatment, and is applicable to other ordered biomolecules or nanostructures.

Författare

Marios Georgiadis

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)

New York University

Stanford University

Aileen Schroeter

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)

Zirui Gao

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)

Paul Scherrer Institut

Manuel Guizar-Sicairos

Paul Scherrer Institut

Marianne Liebi

Chalmers, Fysik, Materialfysik

Christoph Leuze

Stanford University

Jennifer A. McNab

Stanford University

Aleezah Balolia

University of Colorado at Denver

Jelle Veraart

New York University

Benjamin Ades-Aron

New York University

Sunglyoung Kim

New York University

Timothy Shepherd

New York University

Choong H. Lee

New York University

Piotr Walczak

Johns Hopkins Medicine

University of Maryland

Shirish Chodankar

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Phillip DiGiacomo

Stanford University

Gergely David

Universität Zürich

Mark Augath

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)

Valerio Zerbi

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)

Stefan Sommer

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)

Ivan Rajkovic

Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory

Thomas Weiss

Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory

Oliver Bunk

Paul Scherrer Institut

Lin Yang

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Jiangyang Zhang

New York University

Dmitry S. Novikov

New York University

Michael Zeineh

Stanford University

Els Fieremans

New York University

Markus Rudin

Universität Zürich

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH)

Nature Communications

2041-1723 (ISSN) 20411723 (eISSN)

Vol. 12 1 2941

Ämneskategorier

Biomedicinsk laboratorievetenskap/teknologi

Radiologi och bildbehandling

Medicinsk bildbehandling

DOI

10.1038/s41467-021-22719-7

PubMed

34011929

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2021-06-04