• Liwei Yan, Yongze Guo, Jian Qi, Qingtang Zhu, Liqiang Gu, Canbin Zheng, Tao Lin, Yutong Lu, Zitao Zeng, Sha Yu, Shuang Zhu, Xiang Zhou, Xi Zhang, Yunfei Du, Zhi Yao, Yao Lu, and Xiaolin Liu.
• Department of Microsurgery and Orthopedic Trauma, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, PR China; Center for Peripheral Nerve Tissue Engineering and Technology Research, Guangdong, Guangzhou 510080, PR China. Electronic address: 18646555640@163.com.
• J. Neurosci. Methods. 2017 Aug 1; 287: 58-67.

BackgroundThe precise annotation and accurate identification of the topography of fascicles to the end organs are prerequisites for studying human peripheral nerves.New MethodIn this study, we present a feasible imaging method that acquires 3D high-resolution (HR) topography of peripheral nerve fascicles using an iodine and freeze-drying (IFD) micro-computed tomography (microCT) method to greatly increase the contrast of fascicle images.ResultsThe enhanced microCT imaging method can facilitate the reconstruction of high-contrast HR fascicle images, fascicle segmentation and extraction, feature analysis, and the tracing of fascicle topography to end organs, which define fascicle functions.Comparison With Existing MethodsThe complex intraneural aggregation and distribution of fascicles is typically assessed using histological techniques or MR imaging to acquire coarse axial three-dimensional (3D) maps. However, the disadvantages of histological techniques (static, axial manual registration, and data instability) and MR imaging (low-resolution) limit these applications in reconstructing the topography of nerve fascicles.ConclusionsThus, enhanced microCT is a new technique for acquiring 3D intraneural topography of the human peripheral nerve fascicles both to improve our understanding of neurobiological principles and to guide accurate repair in the clinic. Additionally, 3D microstructure data can be used as a biofabrication model, which in turn can be used to fabricate scaffolds to repair long nerve gaps.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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