Stereology as the 3D tool to quantitate lung architecture

Abstract

Stereology is the method of choice for the quantitative assessment of biological objects in microscopy. It takes into account the fact that, in traditional microscopy such as conventional light and transmission electron microscopy, although one has to rely on measurements on nearly two-dimensional sections from fixed and embedded tissue samples, the quantitative data obtained by these measurements should characterize the real three-dimensional properties of the biological objects and not just their “flatland” appearance on the sections. Thus, three-dimensionality is a built-in property of stereological sampling and measurement tools. Stereology is, therefore, perfectly suited to be combined with 3D imaging techniques which cover a wide range of complementary sample sizes and resolutions, e.g. micro-computed tomography, confocal microscopy and volume electron microscopy. Here, we review those stereological principles that are of particular relevance for 3D imaging and provide an overview of applications of 3D imaging-based stereology to the lung in health and disease. The symbiosis of stereology and 3D imaging thus provides the unique opportunity for unbiased and comprehensive quantitative characterization of the three-dimensional architecture of the lung from macro to nano scale.

Nanoparticle delivery system, highly active antiretroviral therapy, and testicular morphology: The role of stereology

“…Design‐based stereology has been reported to be a useful tool because of its application to different organs. More so, it has been described as an appropriate tool to assess the precise morphological and morphometric parameters 248 . Design‐based stereology can be utilized to extrapolate two‐dimensional objects to three‐dimensional objects concerning advanced stochastic and statistical information.…”

Stereology and three-dimensional reconstructions to analyze the pulmonary vasculature

“…Design-based stereology is the gold standard of morphometric studies on the lung (Hsia et al 2010 )—it is, by the way, the gold standard of microscopic morphometry in general, but its application is most frequent in neuroscience, lung and kidney research (Nyengaard 1999 ; Puelles et al 2014 ; Hsia et al 2010 ; Schmitz and Hof 2005 ). Numerous detailed reviews on stereology of the lung are available (Bolender et al 1993 ; Ochs 2006 ; Mühlfeld and Ochs 2013 ; Ochs and Mühlfeld 2013 ; Brandenberger et al 2015 ; Knudsen et al 2021 ), and their content will not be repeated here. In short, design-based stereology provides methods that help to obtain (theoretically) unbiased quantitative data about biological structures in the three-dimensional space from two-dimensional sections through the organ of interest.…”

Personal Reflections on the Life of Hans Jørgen Gottlieb Gundersen

“…After more than 10 years, it still awaits its second application. Most likely this second application will not be based on light microscopy, but on 3D datasets using non-descructive imaging methods such as micro-CT (Knudsen et al, 2021).…”