Evaluation of different heavy-metal stains and embedding media for phase contrast tomography of neuronal tissue

Marina Eckermann, Mareike Töpperwien, Torben Ruhwedel, Wiebke Möbius, Tim Salditt, Bert Müller, Ge Wang
2019 Developments in X-Ray Tomography XII  
In the present work, we evaluate and compare the contrast and resolution obtained on neuronal tissues, i.e. human and mouse cerebellar tissue, with propagation-based x-ray phase-contrast computed tomography (PB-CT). At our laboratory-based liquid metal-jet setup, we obtain overview datasets at sub-micron resolution of mm 3sized volumes. In order to evaluate these parameters down to the sub-cellular level, we utilize the synchrotron endstation GINIX at P10, DESY. At this dedicated endstation
more » ... loped and operated by our group, we utilize x-ray waveguide optics for high-resolution cone-beam scans at strong geometrical magnification. Exploiting this multi-scale approach, we investigate the image quality of cerebellum tissue treated with heavy-metal stainings based on OsO 4 , PTA, UA, combinations thereof, and metallic mercuric sulfides (Golgi-Cox protocol). In addition, we study the electron density contrast in unstained tissues. Depending on the stain, epoxid resin or paraffin is utilized as embedding media, which also significantly affects contrast and image quality. With this work, we want to contribute to an optimized sample preparation to study the neuronal architecture of the brain tissue in greater detail in three dimensions.
doi:10.1117/12.2528432 fatcat:ggv42kqw2jahlgxugwcbduqoki