用AI把骨植入物的3D X光图像变成带染色效果的病理图,无需切片。
Virtual staining for 3D X-ray histology of bone implants
- 用改进的CycleGAN模型,将X光断层扫描转为虚拟染色图像。
- 在50组配对数据上训练,生成结果比基线方法更清晰逼真。
- 适合做无损生物组织分析的研究者,尤其关注骨愈合与植入物降解。
三维X射线组织学技术为传统二维组织学提供了无创替代方案,可在不进行物理切片或化学染色的情况下实现生物组织的体积成像。然而,X射线断层扫描的固有灰度对比度限制了其生化特异性,不如传统染色方法。在数字病理学中,基于深度学习的虚拟染色已成功用于从无标记光学图像生成染色外观。本研究首次将虚拟染色扩展至X射线领域,通过跨模态图像转换,从同步辐射微CT扫描生成人工染色切片。利用超过50对配准的微CT与甲苯胺蓝染色组织学图像(来自骨-植入物样本),我们训练了一个针对少量配对数据优化的改进版CycleGAN网络。全片组织图像被下采样以匹配CT体素尺寸,并采用在线数据增强进行基于图像块的训练。模型引入像素级监督和灰度一致性约束,生成具有组织学真实感的彩色输出,同时保留高分辨率结构细节。该方法在SSIM、PSNR和LPIPS指标上均优于Pix2Pix和标准CycleGAN基线。训练完成后,可应用于完整CT体积生成虚拟染色3D数据集,提升可解释性且无需额外样本制备。虽然新骨形成等特征能较好再现,但植入物降解层的描绘仍存在差异,表明需更多训练数据和进一步优化。本工作首次将虚拟染色引入3D X射线成像,为生物医学研究中的化学信息丰富、无标签组织表征提供可扩展路径。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Three-dimensional X-ray histology techniques offer a non-invasive alternative to conventional 2D histology, enabling volumetric imaging of biological tissues without the need for physical sectioning or chemical staining. However, the inherent greyscale image contrast of X-ray tomography limits its biochemical specificity compared to traditional histological stains. Within digital pathology, deep learning-based virtual staining has demonstrated utility in simulating stained appearances from label-free optical images. In this study, we extend virtual staining to the X-ray domain by applying cross-modality image translation to generate artificially stained slices from synchrotron-radiation-based micro-CT scans. Using over 50 co-registered image pairs of micro-CT and toluidine blue-stained histology from bone-implant samples, we trained a modified CycleGAN network tailored for limited paired data. Whole slide histology images were downsampled to match the voxel size of the CT data, with on-the-fly data augmentation for patch-based training. The model incorporates pixelwise supervision and greyscale consistency terms, producing histologically realistic colour outputs while preserving high-resolution structural detail. Our method outperformed Pix2Pix and standard CycleGAN baselines across SSIM, PSNR, and LPIPS metrics. Once trained, the model can be applied to full CT volumes to generate virtually stained 3D datasets, enhancing interpretability without additional sample preparation. While features such as new bone formation were able to be reproduced, some variability in the depiction of implant degradation layers highlights the need for further training data and refinement. This work introduces virtual staining to 3D X-ray imaging and offers a scalable route for chemically informative, label-free tissue characterisation in biomedical research.
Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。