Volumetric Histology via High-Fidelity Coregistration with MRI

Motivation: Corroborating findings in 3D from ex-vivo MRI with densely-sampled histology is essential to biomarker development, but challenging due to nonlinear 3D deformations. Goal(s): Reconstructing volumetric histology by accurately aligning densely-sampled histological images with post-mortem MRI data to enhance validation of 3D pathological findings. Approach: We built and optimized a novel pipeline integrating advanced imaging with precise registration algorithms to link high-resolution MRI via blockface imaging to volumetric 3D histology aligned. Results: Our optimized blockface volumes contain minimal artifacts and were precisely aligned with MRI, facilitating the coregistration of multi-slice histology, and demonstrating accurate correspondences between MRI and histology slides in 3D. Impact: This study introduces an advanced correlative MRI-histology pipeline to reconstruct volumetric histology, promising to enhance our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases and contribute to the evolution of MRI-based disease biomarkers.