Abstract
BackgroundTexture within biological specimens may reveal critical insights, while being very difficult to quantify. This is a particular problem in histological analysis. For example, cross-polar images of picrosirius stained skin reveal exquisite structure, allowing changes in the basketweave conformation of healthy collagen to be assessed. Existing techniques measure gross pathological changes, such as fibrosis, but are not sufficiently sensitive to detect more subtle and progressive pathological changes in the dermis, such as those seen in ageing. Moreover, screening methods for cutaneous therapeutics require accurate, unsupervised and high-throughput image analysis techniques.ResultsBy analyzing spectra of images post Gabor filtering and Fast Fourier Transform, we were able to measure subtle changes in collagen fibre orientation intractable to existing techniques. We detected the progressive loss of collagen basketweave structure in a series of chronologically aged skin samples, as well as in skin derived from a model of type 2 diabetes mellitus.ConclusionsWe describe a novel bioimaging approach with implications for the evaluation of pathology in a broader range of biological situations.
Highlights
Texture within biological specimens may reveal critical insights, while being very difficult to quantify
Investigation of ageing skin By quantifying the spectra resulting from Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) images, either with or without an eight directional Gabor filter, we sought to evaluate the ability of our methodology to provide an index of collagen organisation
The collagen basketweave is known to relax from middle age in humans, and in vivo analysis of collagen orientation in murine skin via multi-photon confocal microscopy demonstrated measureable alterations in collagen structure from 6-12mth [9]
Summary
Texture within biological specimens may reveal critical insights, while being very difficult to quantify. This is a particular problem in histological analysis. Cross-polar images of picrosirius stained skin reveal exquisite structure, allowing changes in the basketweave conformation of healthy collagen to be assessed. The dermis is primarily composed of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, assembled into a meshwork of primarily collagen fibres [1]. The dermis may be further subdivided into two discrete reticular and papillary layers. The reticular dermis consists of large, mature, well-organised collagen fibres in the lower layer of the dermis, interfacing with the subcutaneous
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