Work

For Application to Human Spaceflight and ISS Experiments: VESGEN Mapping of Microvascular Network Remodeling during Intestinal Inflammation.

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: Challenges to long-duration space exploration and colonization in microgravity and cosmic radiation environments by humans include poorly understood risks for gastrointestinal function and cancer. Nonetheless, constant remodeling of the intestinal microvasculature is critical for tissue viability, healthy wound healing, and successful prevention or recovery from vascular-mediated inflammatory or ischemic diseases such as cancer. Currently no automated image analysis programs provide quantitative assessments of the complex structure of the mucosal vascular system that are necessary for tracking disease development and tissue recovery. Increasing abnormalities to the microvascular network geometry were therefore mapped with VESsel GENeration Analysis (VESGEN) software from 3D tissue reconstructions of developing intestinal inflammation in a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) mouse model. By several VESGEN parameters and a novel vascular network linking analysis, inflammation strongly disrupted the regular, lattice-like geometry that defines the normal microvascular network, correlating positively with the increased recruitment of dendritic cells during mucosal defense responses.

Source: PubMed

Authors: Patricia Parsons-Wingerter, Hans-Christian Reinecker

Institutions: Glenn Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital

Language: English

Topic: Cell Image Analysis Techniques

Subfield: Biophysics

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Awards: Barrier Function of the GI Tract in Health and Disease, Mechanisms of Innate Immune Regulation for Mucosal Homeostasis, Antigen Recognition at Epithelial Interphases, Center for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Massachusetts General Hospital