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Establishing the 3D architecture and morphometry of the intact pulmonary acinus is an essential step toward a more complete understanding of the relationship of lung structure and function. We combined a special fixation method with a unique volumetric nondestructive imaging technique and image processing tools to separate individual acini in the mouse lung. Interior scans of the parenchyma at a resolution of 2 µm enabled the reconstruction and quantitative study of whole acini by image analysis and stereologic methods, yielding data characterizing the 3D morphometry of the pulmonary acinus. The 3D reconstructions compared well with the architecture of silicon rubber casts of mouse acini. The image-based segmentation of individual acini allowed the computation of acinar volume and surface area, as well as estimation of the number of alveoli per acinus using stereologic methods. The acinar morphometry of male C57BL/6 mice age 12 wk and 91 wk was compared. Significant increases in all parameters as a function of age suggest a continuous change of the lung morphometry, with an increase in alveoli beyond what has been previously viewed as the maturation phase of the animals. Our image analysis methods open up opportunities for defining and quantitatively assessing the acinar structure in healthy and diseased lungs. The methods applied here to mice can be adjusted for the study of similarly prepared human lungs.
Vasilescu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.