2025-11-05 オランダ・デルフト工科大学(TUDelft)
Artist’s impression of ComSLI. A rotating LED light coming from below shines through a whole human brain section into a high-resolution camera above. The result (on the right): a detailed map of the nerve fibre pathways. The brain slice comes from a preserved brain that was hardened in paraffin wax (on the left), to obtain micrometre thin slices. Credits: ScienceBrush
<関連情報>
- https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2025/tnw/milestone-in-mapping-the-brains-nerve-fibre-labyrinth
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64896-9
サンプル調製に依存しない組織学におけるミクロン解像度の繊維マッピング Micron-resolution fiber mapping in histology independent of sample preparation
Marios Georgiadis,Franca auf der Heiden,Hamed Abbasi,Loes Ettema,Jeffrey Nirschl,Hossein Moein Taghavi,Moe Wakatsuki,Andy Liu,William Hai Dang Ho,Mackenzie Carlson,Michail Doukas,Sjors A. Koppes,Stijn Keereweer,Raymond A. Sobel,Kawin Setsompop,Congyu Liao,Katrin Amunts,Markus Axer,Michael Zeineh & Miriam Menzel
Nature Communications Published:05 November 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64896-9
Abstract
Mapping the brain’s fiber network is crucial for understanding its function and malfunction, but resolving nerve trajectories over large fields of view is challenging. Here, we show that computational scattered light imaging (ComSLI) can map fiber networks in histology independent of sample preparation, also in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues including whole human brain sections. We showcase this method in new and archived, animal and human brain sections, for different sample preparations (in paraffin, deparaffinized, various stains, unstained fresh-frozen). We convert microscopic orientations to microstructure-informed fiber orientation distributions (μFODs). Adapting tractography tools from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI), we trace axonal trajectories revealing white and gray matter connectivity. These allow us to identify altered microstructure or deficient tracts in demyelinating or neurodegenerating pathology, and to show key advantages over dMRI, polarization microscopy, and structure tensor analysis. Finally, we map fibers in non-brain tissues, including muscle, bone, and blood vessels, unveiling the tissue’s function. Our cost-effective, versatile approach enables micron-resolution studies of intricate fiber networks across tissues, species, diseases, and sample preparations, offering new dimensions to neuroscientific and biomedical research.
