Christian Westöö is currently doing his final preparations before his dissertation the 28th of October. His thesis work demonstrates the value of synchrotron-based phase-contrast micro-CT  for 3D imaging of paraffin-embedded pulmonary tissue at a micrometer level.

Synchrotron-based phase-contrast micro-CT revealed four types of plexiform lesions in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), leading to a novel classification. The imaging also confirmed patent pulmonary to systemic shunts within some types of plexiform lesions.

The role of versican (a proteoglycan) in pulmonary hypertension was also studied. Results showed significant enzymatic turnover in human PAH lesions leading to a plasma analysis where a fragment of versican was found to be significantly elevated in patients: a possible future biomarker. No ameliorating effect of versican knockdown in a murine disease model was found, perhaps because of lack of occlusive lesion formation in this model. Synchrotron-based phase-contrast micro-CT imaging revealed human-like occlusive vascular lesion formation in mice exposed to house dust mite, indicating this model to be more suitable for studies of the role of versican in vivo.