Advanced three-dimensional X-ray imaging unravels structural development of the human thymus compartments
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The thymus, responsible for T cell-mediated adaptive immune system, has a structural and functional complexity that is not yet fully understood. Until now, thymic anatomy has been studied using histological thin sections or confocal microscopy 3D reconstruction, necessarily for limited volumes. METHODS: We used Phase Contrast X-Ray Computed Tomography to address the lack of whole-organ volumetric information on the microarchitecture of its structural components. We scanned 15 human thymi (9 foetal and 6 postnatal) with synchrotron radiation, and repeated scans using a conventional laboratory x-ray system. We used histology, immunofluorescence and flow cytometry to validate the x-ray findings. RESULTS: Application to human thymi at pre- and post-natal stages allowed reliable tracking and quantification of the evolution of parameters such as size and distribution of Hassall's Bodies and medulla-to-cortex ratio, whose changes reflect adaptation of thymic activity. We show that Hassall's bodies can occupy 25% of the medulla volume, indicating they should be considered a third thymic compartment with possible implications on their role. Moreover, we demonstrate compatible results can be obtained with standard laboratory-based x-ray equipment, making this research tool accessible to a wider community. CONCLUSIONS: Our study allows overcoming the resolution and/or volumetric limitations of existing approaches for the study of thymic disfunction in congenital and acquired disorders affecting the adaptive immune system.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".