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Label‐free histomorphometry of peripheral nerve by stimulated Raman spectroscopy
Author(s) -
Coto Hernández Iván,
Yang Wenlong,
Mohan Suresh,
Jowett Nate
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
muscle and nerve
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.025
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1097-4598
pISSN - 0148-639X
DOI - 10.1002/mus.26895
Subject(s) - sciatic nerve , axon , biomedical engineering , peripheral nerve , medicine , microscopy , nerve fiber , materials science , anatomy , pathology
Abstract Background Conventional processing of nerve for histomorphometry is resource‐intensive, precluding use in intraoperative assessment of nerve quality during nerve transfer procedures. Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy is a label‐free technique that enables rapid and high‐resolution histology. Methods Segments of healthy murine sciatic nerve, healthy human obturator nerve, and human cross‐facial nerve autografts were imaged on a custom SRS microscope. Myelinated axon quantification was performed through segmentation using a random forest machine learning algorithm in commercial software. Results High contrast, high‐resolution imaging of nerve morphology was obtained with SRS imaging. Automated myelinated axon quantification from cross‐sections of healthy human nerve imaged using SRS was achieved. Conclusions Herein, we demonstrate the use of a label‐free technique for rapid imaging of murine and human peripheral nerve cryosections. We illustrate the potential of this technique to inform intraoperative decision‐making through rapid automated quantification of myelinated axons using a machine learning algorithm.