Project Details
Projekt
Validation of 129Xe magnetic resonance imaging for noninvasive investigation of normal aging of lung microstructure
Subject Area
Medical Physics, Biomedical Technology
Anatomy and Physiology
Anatomy and Physiology
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 558306628
Despite intensive research efforts, many processes of lung aging remain unknown. However, an improved understanding of early changes in lung microstructure due to disease requires a detailed understanding of normal lung aging. Stereologic methods applied to histologic sections can be considered the gold standard for assessing microstructure and have been used in numerous animal models of normal lung development and aging. However, stereologic examination of the lung is only possible locally and by invasive tissue sampling or posthumously. Stereological studies of the normal human lung are therefore generally limited to a few cases. The results are also generally influenced by the method of tissue fixation. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with hyperpolarized 129Xe enables the non-invasive collection of information on the function and structure of the lung in vivo. In addition to ventilation imaging to study airway obstruction, 129Xe MRI allows the study of the diffusion of gas atoms both in the air-filled spaces and in the lung parenchyma, which allows conclusions to be drawn about lung microstructure. There is ample evidence that 129Xe MRI of the lung is sensitive to subclinical changes in lung microstructure and thus has the potential to improve our understanding of normal lung aging. For example, several publications have found a statistically significant correlation between alveolar wall thickness from chemical shift saturation recovery (CSSR) spectroscopy and age in healthy subjects. However, the important question of the extent to which microstructural parameters from non-invasive 129Xe-CSSR spectroscopy correctly capture changes in lung microstructure due to normal aging has not yet been clarified. The overall aim of this project is to validate the 129Xe-CSSR method for the first time with regard to the non-invasive investigation of aging processes in the microstructure of the lung. To this end, the project has three sub-goals: 1. establishment of an animal model to validate the microstructure parameters from 129Xe-CSSR spectroscopy by the reference standard stereology, 2. validation of models of gas uptake for the determination of microstructure parameters from 129Xe-CSSR spectroscopy data by numerical simulations in realistic geometries of the rat lung, 3. validation of the microstructure parameters from 129Xe-CSSR spectroscopy by stereology in an animal model of normal aging of the lung. Achieving these goals will be an important step towards a non-invasive investigation of lung microstructure and thus towards a better understanding of lung aging processes in humans and animals and an improved diagnosis of diseases at an early stage.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
