Stereology determining sampling precision

In his publications, Elias emphasized the pitfalls of the three-dimensional interpretation of microscopic sections (e.g. Particular hallmarks of EliasР’Т‘ scientific oeuvre were the brilliant stereograms drawn by him which illustrated the three-dimensional architecture of histologic structures (see e.g. He studied fine arts as well as mathematics, biology and physics and worked as a painter and sculptor, but also as teacher, a cinematographer, and finally as an anatomist (for details, see Hildebrandt 2012). Elias, a German of Jewish descent who later became a US citizen, was a man with broad interests both in science and art. Thus, stereology is not just one but actually THE 3D technique for quantitative microscopy (for introduction to the foundations and practical applications, see Baddeley and Vedel Jensen 2005 and Howard and Reed 2005).Р”Р„ pioneer in the development of stereology was Hans Elias (1907РІР‚вЂњ1985). As such, three-dimensionality is a built-in property of stereology, as opposed to РІР‚СљplanimetricРІР‚Сњ image analysis of pixels which ignores the РІР‚Сљdimension trapРІР‚Сњ. Based on mathematical principles coming from the field of stochastic geometry, stereology was developed as a set of methods to obtain quantitative three-dimensional information based on measurements on properly sampled nearly two-dimensional microscopic sections. There is, however, a solution to this problem: stereology. And although we are (or at least should) be aware of this loss of information, it is still commonly overlooked, as indicated by many published studies containing incorrect data because this РІР‚Сљdimension trapРІР‚Сњ is ignored (for a survey in lung research, see MР“Сhlfeld et al. However, as a result of this sectioning process, we lose one dimension, and therefore we lose important qualitative and quantitative information. Conventional light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) rely on this principle. To get insight into the fine structure of three-dimensional biological objects, the classical approach is to use microscopes to investigate nearly two-dimensional sections produced by microtomes from small samples taken from these objects. This pertinacious problem may be termed the РІР‚Сљdimension trapРІР‚Сњ. In the context of microscopy, there is a related problem regarding the misinterpretation of what we see. And although we are aware of this problem, they still work. Many optical illusions are based on our misinterpretation of two-dimensional figures as representations of three-dimensional objects.

The РІР‚Сљdimension trapРІР‚Сњ in microscopy and its solution by stereology The symbiosis of stereology and 3D imaging thus provides the unique opportunity for unbiased and comprehensive quantitative characterization of the three-dimensional architecture of the lung from macro to nano scale.

Here, we review those stereological principles that are of particular relevance for 3D imaging and provide an overview of applications of 3D imaging-based stereology to the lung in health and disease. micro-computed tomography, confocal microscopy and volume electron microscopy. Stereology is, therefore, perfectly suited to be combined with 3D imaging techniques which cover a wide range of complementary sample sizes and resolutions, e.g. Thus, three-dimensionality is a built-in property of stereological sampling and measurement tools. It takes into account the fact that, in traditional microscopy such as conventional light and transmission electron microscopy, although one has to rely on measurements on nearly two-dimensional sections from fixed and embedded tissue samples, the quantitative data obtained by these measurements should characterize the real three-dimensional properties of the biological objects and not just their РІР‚СљflatlandРІР‚Сњ appearance on the sections. Stereology is the method of choice for the quantitative assessment of biological objects in microscopy.

Stereology determining sampling precision