Elastic transformation of histological slices allows precise co-registration with microCT data sets for a refined virtual histology approach

Although X-ray based 3D virtual histology is an emerging tool for the analysis of biological tissue, it falls short in terms of specificity when compared to conventional histology. Thus, the aim was to establish a novel approach that combines 3D information provided by microCT with high specificity that only (immuno-)histochemistry can offer. For this purpose, we developed a software frontend, which utilises an elastic transformation technique to accurately co-register various histological and immunohistochemical stainings with free propagation phase contrast synchrotron radiation microCT. We demonstrate that the precision of the overlay of both imaging modalities is significantly improved by performing our elastic registration workflow, as evidenced by calculation of the displacement index. To illustrate the need for an elastic co-registration approach we examined specimens from a mouse model of breast cancer with injected metal-based nanoparticles. Using the elastic transformation pipeline, we were able to co-localise the nanoparticles to specifically stained cells or tissue structures into their three-dimensional anatomical context. Additionally, we performed a semi-automated tissue structure and cell classification. This workflow provides new insights on histopathological analysis by combining CT specific three-dimensional information with cell/tissue specific information provided by classical histology.