Human fetal virtual histology with X-ray phase contrast imaging

Human fetal analysis is of fundamental importance in understanding normal and pathological development. Congenital malformations and prenatal deaths are commonly linked to alterations of organs formation during embryonic and fetal life. Normal and pathological developments are not completely understood yet, because access to human fetal samples is difficult and exploratory means are scarce. Here we show the first X-ray phase contrast images of post mortem human fetuses performed at the tissue scale. Imaging was performed on both an entire sample and isolated organs at higher resolution. X-ray phase contrast imaging is based on the detection of refraction of a high energy X-ray beam after sample exposure. We were able to produce a tomographic imaging of human fetal tissues at the beginning of their second trimester at resolutions of 23 µm, 6 µm and 3 µm with high contrast on soft tissues. Our results demonstrate how X-ray phase contrast imaging is a promising technique for human development analysis as it gives high-contrast and high-resolution results for soft and hard tissues. We assume this technique to be a reference in the future of human development studies as it is conservative for rare and precious human specimens.