Increased variability in Apc Min/+ intestinal tissue can be measured with microultrasound

Fatehullah, A. et al. (2016) Increased variability in Apc Min/+ intestinal tissue can be measured with microultrasound. Scientific Reports, 6, 29570. (doi: 10.1038/srep29570) (PMID:27406832) (PMCID:PMC4942766)

Abstract

Altered tissue structure is a feature of many disease states and is usually measured by microscopic methods, limiting analysis to small areas. Means to rapidly and quantitatively measure the structure and organisation of large tissue areas would represent a major advance not just for research but also in the clinic. Here, changes in tissue organisation that result from heterozygosity in Apc, a precancerous situation, are comprehensively measured using microultrasound and three-dimensional high-resolution microscopy. Despite its normal appearance in conventionally examined cross-sections, both approaches revealed a significant increase in the variability of tissue organisation in Apc heterozygous tissue. These changes preceded the formation of aberrant crypt foci or adenoma. Measuring these premalignant changes using microultrasound provides a potential means to detect microscopically abnormal regions in large tissue samples, independent of visual examination or biopsies. Not only does this provide a powerful tool for studying tissue structure in experimental settings, the ability to detect and monitor tissue changes by microultrasound could be developed into a powerful adjunct to screening endoscopy in the clinic.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding for this work was provided by a program grant from Cancer Research UK to I.S.N (C430/A11243) that supported A.F., A.J.L., I.P.N., P.L.A., and S.A.N., a programme grant from EPSRC to S.C. (SONOPILL EP/K034537) and support from the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an SFC SPIRIT “INSPIRE” award to S.S. Tissue imaging was also supported by a multiuser equipment grant from the Wellcome Trust (WT101468).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Cochran, Professor Sandy and Lay, Dr Holly
• Authors: Fatehullah, A., Sharma, S., Newton, I. P., Langlands, A.J., Lay, H., Nelson, S.A., McMahon, R.K., McIlvenny, N., Appleton, P.L., Cochran, S., and Näthke, I. S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Scientific Reports
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2045-2322
• ISSN (Online): 2045-2322
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 Fatehullah, A. et al.
• First Published: First published in Scientific Reports 6:29570
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License