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Purpose and context
Understanding bone vascularisation and angiogenesis is an important problem in several diseases, most notably bone metastases and osteoarthritis. Analysis of bone microvascularization has generally been performed from 2D histology. We proposed a method that enabled for the first time to simultaneously analyze, in3D, the microvascularization and bone microstructure in a rat model.
Methods
The method is based on the use of quantitative synchrotron micro-computed tomography coupled to an automatic image analysis procedure. It was applied to investigate the effect of intermittent parathyroid hormone (PTH) administration on angiogenesis and osteogenesis in rats. Rats were posthumously injected with a contrast agent and subsequently imaged. The algorithm allowed the reconstruction and the segmentation of both bone microstructure and microvascularization in cortical and trabecular regions. A large set of 3D quantitative parameters were then extracted from the bone and vascular networks. Due to the short acquisition times and the efficiency of the image analysis algorithm, a large dataset was analysed, which permitted statistical analysis of the measured parameters.
Fig. 1: Synchrotron radiation tomographic slice of a rat bone. Vessels opacified with barium sulphate are shown in white. Scale bar shows 1 mm.
Results
Statistical analysis confirmed that treatment with PTH significantly modulated several bone and vessel parameters.
Fig. 2: 3D rendering of bone and vessel microstructure showing the cortical and trabecular bone, and cortical and trabecular vessel compartments.