Applying synchrotron-based imaging for the analysis of liver fibrosis
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Lunds universitet - Clinical Research center |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 298 000 |
| Project duration | October 2019 - June 2020 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Research infrastructure - utilisation and collaboration |
| Call | Increasing capacity and skills of PhD students regarding industrially relevant neutron and synchrotron-based analytical methods – 2019 |
Important results from the project
The overall goal in the present project was to carry out SAXS analysis in liver fibrosis in an animal model and in human NAFLD patients to establish if this approach could be used to identify structural changes that could be used as biomarkers for patients with different stages of chronic liver disease. The second
Expected long term effects
We have obtained proof-of-concept that this approach can identify microstructural changes in the development of liver fibrosis in the NIF mouse model. This provided the first steps in establishing this approach for identifying structural changes to be used as biomarkers for patients with different stages of chronic liver disease (NAFLD and NASH). The PhD student has had hands-on training in acquisition sessions at the PSI facility and been involved in the analysis of the data sets obtained.
Approach and implementation
In this study we aimed to visualize and quantitate long-term changes in the fibrillary matrix component, e.g. differences in collagen fibril size (2D SAXS), altered fibrillary orientation (2D+3D SAXS) and altered collagen organization associated with an abnormal liver vessel bed (3D SAXS) during progression of fibrosis in the NIF mouse model, that can be correlated with fibrosis staging (scoring). The next step was to perform analogous analyses of biopsies from human NAFLD and NASH patients.