French researchers from Nantes have developed a new technique for 3D visualization of muscle fibrosis based on automated image analysis (known as second harmonic generation or SHG) coupled with the study of histological sections of heart muscle:
- the dystrophin-deficient rat, model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and control rats were used to validate it;
- fibrotic lesions are thus more easily visible and quantifiable in the myocardium;
- it is also possible to see their topographical and temporal evolution;
- changes in the collagen network, both quantitative and qualitative, appear to be good biomarkers of the phenomenon.
