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Optical characterization of vascular tissue constructs made with soluble vs. homogenized collagen

The ability of optical imaging techniques like optical coherence tomography (OCT) to non‐destructively characterize engineered tissues has generated much interest recently. We are testing the hypothesis that OCT data can characterize cellular remodeling of vascular constructs made from 2 types of scaffold matrix: soluble collagen and homogenized collagen. Smooth muscle cells were seeded into the 2 types of collagen matrices at a density of 106 cells/ml. The constructs were allowed to remodel for 5 days, with OCT imaging of triplicate samples occurring every 24 hours. From the OCT data, the attenuation and reflectivity were evaluated by fitting the data to a theoretical model that relates the construct optical properties to the OCT signal. The fitted optical properties were compared to the construct volume. Construct cellularity was assessed by histology. Our preliminary results showed the soluble collagen constructs compacted over time, while the homogenized constructs did not. In agreement with the compaction data and histology, the measured optical properties from the OCT images showed an increase in both attenuation and reflectivity of the soluble constructs, but not in the homogenized constructs. These results highlight the potential of OCT to non‐destructively characterize engineered tissues and may have important implications in regenerative medicine. This study was supported by NIH RO1 HL084013.