Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder which is characterized by increasing dementia. It is accompanied by the development of extracellular β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the gray matter of the brain. Histology is the gold standard for the visualization of this pathology, but also has intrinsic shortcomings. Fully three-dimensional analysis and quantitative metrics of alterations in the tissue structure require a complementary approach. In this work we use X-ray phase-contrast tomography to obtain three-dimensional reconstructions of human hippocampal tissue affected by AD. Due to intrinsic electron density differences, tissue components and structures such as the granule cells of the dentate gyrus, blood vessels, or mineralized plaques can be identified and segmented in large volumes. Based on correlative histology, protein (tau, β-amyloid) and elemental content (iron, calcium) can be attributed to certain morphological features occurring in the entire volume. In the vicinity of senile plaques, an accumulation of microglia in combination with a loss of neuronal cells can be observed.

中文翻译：

---

受阿尔茨海默病影响的人脑组织的相关 X 射线相衬断层扫描和组织学

阿尔茨海默病 (AD) 是一种神经退行性疾病，其特征是痴呆症增加。它伴随着大脑灰质中细胞外β-淀粉样蛋白斑块和神经原纤维缠结的发展。组织学是这种病理可视化的金标准，但也有内在的缺点。组织结构变化的全三维分析和定量指标需要一种互补的方法。在这项工作中，我们使用 X 射线相衬断层扫描来获得受 AD 影响的人类海马组织的三维重建。由于固有的电子密度差异，组织成分和结构（例如齿状回的颗粒细胞、血管或矿化斑块）可以被大量识别和分割。根据相关组织学，蛋白质（tau、β-淀粉样蛋白）和元素含量（铁、钙）可归因于整个体积中出现的某些形态特征。在老年斑附近，可以观察到小胶质细胞的积累以及神经元细胞的损失。