Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of the Human Gastro-Oesophageal Junction

Yassi R, Cheng LK, Al-Ali S, Sands G, Gerneke D, LeGrice I, Pullan AJ, Windsor JA. Three-dimensional high-resolution reconstruction of the human gastro-oesophageal junction. Clin Anat. 2010 Apr;23(3):287-96. PubMed PMID: 20169612.

To advance the understanding of the correlation between the anatomy and physiology of the GOJ, a detailed understanding of the micro-anatomy of the GOJ in 3D is necessary. Therefore, the aim of this project was to obtain a 3D reconstruction of the detailed micro-anatomy of the human GOJ from a recently deceased cadaver. The excised tissue underwent a series of staining and milling and was imaged at each step using a high-resolution (8.2µm/pixel) digital camera. The structures through the wall and around the GOJ were traced on each of the images. The traced data was then used to construct a detailed 3D representation of a human GOJ. A 3D interactive viewing enviroment has been created to enable different structures within the tissue to be examined or highlighted independently as shown below.

Figure 1: 3D tissue block using stain colours.

Figure 2: 3D tissue block using artificial colours.

Figure 3: Inferior view of the 3D tissue block.


    View the interactive WebGL model. This will require a browser with WebGL support and approximately 2GB of free RAM. The interactive model will requires a download of 200 Mb.