Label-free Functional and Structural Imaging of Liver Microvascular Complex in Mice by Jones Matrix Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

We demonstrate label-free imaging of the functional and structural properties of microvascular complex in mice liver. The imaging was performed by a custom-built Jones-matrix based polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (JM-OCT), which is capable of measuring tissue’s attenuation coefficient, birefringence, and tiny tissue dynamics. Two longitudinal studies comprising a healthy liver and an early fibrotic liver model were performed. In the healthy liver, we observed distinctive high dynamics beneath the vessel at the initial time point (0 hour) and reappearance of high dynamics at 32-hour time point. In the early fibrotic liver model, we observed high dynamics signal that reveals a clear network vascular structure by volume rendering. Longitudinal time-course imaging showed that these high dynamics signals faded and decreased over time.

Label-free metabolic imaging of non-alcoholic-fatty-liver-disease (NAFLD) liver by volumetric dynamic optical coherence tomography

“…The sections were imaged under a microscope (BZ-X710, Keyence Corp., Osaka, Japan) with an 10× objective (NA = 0.3). was found in our previous study [39] and are known to be blood vessels. A tessellated texture appears in the slab projection of OCT [Fig.…”

“…Although vascular structure was not clear in the OCT intensity in this study [Fig. 1(b) and (c)], our previous study of normal mouse liver suggests that the high-LIV locates just beneath the vascular lumen [39]. Accordingly, the high-LIV vessel-like structures in this study also colocate with the tissue beneath or around vessels.…”

“…As we have mentioned, the OCT intensity image in the current study does not clearly visualize them. Although it was visible in our previous OCT intensity imaging [39], the same study also showed that the OCT intensity does not always visualize the vessel lumens. In H&E histological micrographs [Fig.…”

Label-free intratissue activity imaging of alveolar organoids with dynamic optical coherence tomography

“…Several DOCT methods have been demonstrated to visualize the magnitude [28,29], frequency [30][31][32], and time-correlation [28,33,34] of the intratissue and intracellular activities. DOCT has been applied to a variety of samples including human esophageal and cervical biopsies [32], ex vivo mouse or rat organs [29][30][31][34][35][36], in vivo zebrafish [37], in vitro cell culture [38], spheroid [28,39], mammaria organoid [40], and retinal organoid [41]. Among the DOCT techniques, logarithmic-intensity-variance (LIV) contrasts the fluctuation magnitude of the OCT signal intensity [28], and is expected to be sensitive to the magnitude of intratissue and intracellular motility.…”

“…Among the DOCT techniques, logarithmic-intensity-variance (LIV) contrasts the fluctuation magnitude of the OCT signal intensity [28], and is expected to be sensitive to the magnitude of intratissue and intracellular motility. In previous studies, LIV has revealed the functional structures of ex vivo mouse organs [35,36] and in vitro tumor spheroids [28,39].…”