JOURNAL ARTICLE
RESEARCH SUPPORT, NON-U.S. GOV'T
Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

Investigation of the human pineal gland 3D organization by X-ray phase contrast tomography.

Pineal gland (PG) is a part of the human brain epithalamus that plays an important role in sleep, circadian rhythm, immunity, and reproduction. The calcium deposits and lesions in PG interfere with normal function of the organ and can be associated with different health disorders including serious neurological diseases. At the moment, the detailed mechanisms of PG calcifications and PG lesions formation as well as their involvement in pathological processes are not fully understood. The deep and comprehensive study of the structure of the uncut human PG with histological details, poses a stiff challenge to most imaging techniques, due to low spatial resolution, low visibility or to exceedingly aggressive sample preparation. Here, we investigate the whole uncut and unstained human post-mortem PGs by X-ray phase contrast tomography (XPCT). XPCT is an advanced 3D imaging technique, that permits to study of both soft and calcified tissue of a sample at different scales: from the whole organ to cell structure. In our research we simultaneously resolved 3D structure of parenchyma, vascular network and calcifications. Moreover, we distinguished structural details of intact and degenerated PG tissue. We discriminated calcifications with different structure, pinealocytes nuclei and the glial cells processes. All results were validated by histology. Our research clear demonstrated that XPCT is a potential tool for the high resolution 3D imaging of PG morphological features. This technique opens a new perspective to investigate PG dysfunction and understand the mechanisms of onset and progression of diseases involving the pineal gland.

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app