Testing Foundations of Biological Scaling Theory Using Automated Measurements of Vascular Networks.

ABSTRACT: Scientists have long sought to understand how vascular networks supply blood and oxygen to cells throughout the body. Recent work focuses on principles that constrain how vessel size changes through branching generations from the aorta to capillaries and uses scaling exponents to quantify these changes. Prominent scaling theories predict that combinations of these exponents explain how metabolic, growth, and other biological rates vary with body size. Nevertheless, direct measurements of individual vessel segments have been limited because existing techniques for measuring vasculature are invasive, time consuming, and technically difficult. We developed software that extracts the length, radius, and connectivity of in vivo vessels from contrast-enhanced 3D Magnetic Resonance Angiography. U

SUBMITTER: Newberry MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4552567 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature