Physiological kidney function is closely related to the state of the vascular network. Disorders, such as capillary rarefaction, predispose to chronic kidney disease (CKD). In this context, deepening of the methodologies for studying the renal vascular network can be of basic importance. To meet this need, numerous animal models and, in parallel, several methods have been developed. In this work we propose a protocol to accurately feature kidney vasculature in mouse, however, the same protocol is suitable to be applied also to other animal models. The approach is multiparametric and mainly based on micro-computed tomography (μCT) technique. Micro-ct allows to study in detail the vascular network of any organ by exploiting the possibility to perfuse the sample with a contrast agent. The proposed protocol provides a fast and reliable method to extract quantitative information from the μCT scan by using only the basic functions of the software supplied by the scanner without any additional analysis. Through iterative cropping of the scanned ROI and calculation of a sample-specific threshold we calculated that the average volume of a female BALB/c kidney of eighth weeks is 147.8 mm³ (5.4%). We also pointed out that the average volume of the vascular network is 4.9% (0.3%). In parallel we performed traditional histological and immunofluorescence techniques to integrate the information gained via μCT and to frame them in the tissue context. Vessel count on histological sections showed a different density in the different regions of the organ parenchyma, in detail, vessel density in the cortex was 19.03 ± 2.51 vessels/ROI while in the medulla it was 10.6 ± 1.7 vessels/ROI and 5.4 ± 1.3 vessels/ROI in the outer and inner medulla, respectively. We then studied vessel distribution in the renal parenchyma which showed that the 55% of vascular component is included in the cortex, the 30% in the outer medulla and the 15% in the inner medulla.

Collectively, we propose an integrated approach that can be particularly useful in the preclinical setting to characterize the vasculature of any organ accurately and rapidly.

生理肾功能与血管网络的状态密切相关。毛细血管稀疏等疾病易患慢性肾病 (CKD)。在这种情况下，深化研究肾血管网络的方法可能具有基本重要性。为了满足这一需求，已经开发了许多动物模型，并同时开发了几种方法。在这项工作中，我们提出了一个准确描述小鼠肾脏血管系统的协议，然而，同样的协议也适用于其他动物模型。该方法是多参数的，主要基于微计算机断层扫描 (μCT) 技术。Micro-ct 允许通过利用造影剂灌注样本的可能性来详细研究任何器官的血管网络。所提出的协议提供了一种快速可靠的方法，可通过仅使用扫描仪提供的软件的基本功能从 μCT 扫描中提取定量信息，而无需任何额外的分析。通过扫描 ROI 的迭代裁剪和样本特定阈值的计算，我们计算出第八周女性 BALB/c 肾脏的平均体积为 147.8 mm³ (5.4%)。我们还指出，血管网络的平均体积为 4.9% (0.3%)。同时，我们进行了传统的组织学和免疫荧光技术，以整合通过 μCT 获得的信息并将其框定在组织环境中。组织切片上的血管计数在器官实质的不同区域显示不同的密度，详细而言，皮质中的血管密度为 19.03 ± 2.51 血管/ROI，而髓质中的血管密度为 10.6 ± 1.7 血管/ROI 和 5.4 ± 1.3 血管/ROI 分别位于外髓质和内髓质。然后我们研究了肾实质中的血管分布，表明 55% 的血管成分包含在皮质中，30% 包含在外髓质中，15% 包含在内髓质中。

总的来说，我们提出了一种综合方法，该方法在临床前环境中特别有用，可以准确快速地表征任何器官的脉管系统。