{"doi":"10.1101/2021.02.03.429481","title":"Multiscale three-dimensional imaging of intact human organs down to the cellular scale using hierarchical phase-contrast tomography","abstract":"ABSTRACT Human organs are complex, three-dimensional and multiscale systems. Spatially mapping the human body down through its hierarchy, from entire organs to their individual functional units and specialised cells, is a major obstacle to fully understanding health and disease. To meet this challenge, we developed hierarchical phase-contrast tomography (HiP-CT), an X-ray phase propagation technique utilising the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility’s Extremely Brilliant Source: the world’s first high-energy 4 th generation X-ray source. HiP-CT enabled three-dimensional and non-destructive imaging at near-micron resolution in soft tissues at one hundred thousand times the voxel size whilst maintaining the organ’s structure. We applied HiP-CT to image five intact human parenchymal organs: brain, lung, heart, kidney and spleen. These were hierarchically assessed with HiP-CT, providing a structural overview of the whole organ alongside detail of the organ’s individual functional units and cells. The potential applications of HiP-CT were demonstrated through quantification and morphometry of glomeruli in an intact human kidney, and identification of regional changes to the architecture of the air-tissue interface and alveolar morphology in the lung of a deceased COVID-19 patient. Overall, we show that HiP-CT is a powerful tool which can provide a comprehensive picture of structural information for whole intact human organs, encompassing precise details on functional units and their constituent cells to better understand human health and disease.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2021,"id":214495,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9544,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":618657,"name":"Paul Tafforeau","orcid":"0000-0002-5962-1683","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":373739,"name":"Willi L. Wagner","orcid":"0000-0002-2748-5429","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":409863,"name":"Daniyal J. Jafree","orcid":"0000-0001-8235-0394","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":618658,"name":"Alexandre Bellier","orcid":"0000-0003-0907-0315","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":618659,"name":"Christopher Werlein","orcid":"0000-0002-7694-4257","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":618660,"name":"Mark Kühnel","orcid":"0000-0003-3558-2576","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":618661,"name":"Elodie Boller","orcid":"0000-0002-1938-7888","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":408619,"name":"Simon Walker‐Samuel","orcid":"0000-0003-3530-9166","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":618662,"name":"Jan Lukas Robertus","orcid":"0000-0003-0433-7965","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":618663,"name":"David A. Long","orcid":"0000-0001-6580-3435","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":618664,"name":"Joseph Jacob","orcid":"0000-0002-8054-2293","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":618665,"name":"Sebastian Marussi","orcid":"0000-0003-4537-210X","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":618666,"name":"Emmeline Brown","orcid":"0000-0001-6222-0146","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":618667,"name":"Natalie Holroyd","orcid":"0000-0001-9174-1346","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":560565,"name":"Danny Jonigk","orcid":"0000-0002-5251-2281","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":373742,"name":"Maximilian Ackermann","orcid":"0000-0001-9996-2477","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":336330,"name":"Peter Lee","orcid":"0000-0002-3898-8881","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":408615,"name":"Claire Walsh","orcid":"0000-0003-3769-3392","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":70,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:52:46.604690Z","pmid":"33564772","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}