The first stage of the project included preparation for the execution of the project, which proceeded according to the proposed plan, with no deviations or deviations from it. All ethical approvals necessary to proceed to the second stage were obtained and all preparations for the optimal conduct of the following stages were made.
In the second stage of the project, the experiments planned for the acquisition of biological material for the development and validation of the 3D reconstruction software and tissue analysis were carried out. All experiments were carried out according to the proposed plan and existing approvals, with no deviations or deviations from it. After the execution of pathological models on animals (myocardial infarction and arteriosclerosis), the organs were harvested at different times and processed in paraffin, so that they could be serially sectioned. Infarcted hearts, as well as atherosclerotically modified blood vessels, but also other organs (liver, kidneys, spleen) were harvested and included in paraffin. After sectioning, serial sections were stained with the usual histological stains, but also with immunofluorescence to identify specific structures, according to the plans. The respective images were acquired using an automatic slide scanner (acquired within the project), and the respective images were used to create the planned software. The software was successfully developed and validated in 3D analysis of organs in an international cooperation, resulting in the completion of an article that is under evaluation in an ISI journal.
The third stage of the project comes to an end and we are happy to be so successful in developing our software, but also convincing our colleges of the opportunities open. We started already many collaborations and we are overwhelming by the interest and the trust of our collaborators. Many thanks everybody for contributing to the success of the project.