Analysis of Vascular Architecture and Parenchymal Damage Generated by Reduced Blood Perfusion in Decellularized Porcine Kidneys Using a Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix.

Igor V Pantic,Georg A Petroianu,Peter R Corridon,Adeeba Shakeel

doi:10.3389/fcvm.2022.797283

Abstract

There is no cure for kidney failure, but a bioartificial kidney may help address this global problem. Decellularization provides a promising platform to generate transplantable organs. However, maintaining a viable vasculature is a significant challenge to this technology. Even though angiography offers a valuable way to assess scaffold structure/function, subtle changes are overlooked by specialists. In recent years, various image analysis methods in radiology have been suggested to detect and identify subtle changes in tissue architecture. The aim of our research was to apply one of these methods based on a gray level co-occurrence matrix (Topalovic et al.) computational algorithm in the analysis of vascular architecture and parenchymal damage generated by hypoperfusion in decellularized porcine. Perfusion decellularization of the whole porcine kidneys was performed using previously established protocols. We analyzed and compared angiograms of kidneys subjected to pathophysiological arterial perfusion of whole blood. For regions of interest Santos et al. covering kidney medulla and the main elements of the vascular network, five major GLCM features were calculated: angular second moment as an indicator of textural uniformity, inverse difference moment as an indicator of textural homogeneity, GLCM contrast, GLCM correlation, and sum variance of the co-occurrence matrix. In addition to GLCM, we also performed discrete wavelet transform analysis of angiogram ROIs by calculating the respective wavelet coefficient energies using high and low-pass filtering. We report statistically significant changes in GLCM and wavelet features, including the reduction of the angular second moment and inverse difference moment, indicating a substantial rise in angiogram textural heterogeneity. Our findings suggest that the GLCM method can be successfully used as an addition to conventional fluoroscopic angiography analyses of micro/macrovascular integrity following in vitro blood perfusion to investigate scaffold integrity. This approach is the first step toward developing an automated network that can detect changes in the decellularized vasculature.

Highlights

The incidence of kidney failure, otherwise known as endstage renal disease Zambon et al is rising globally [1, 2]
Fluoroscopic angiography showed that the vascular network was well-preserved post decellularization in non-perfused kidneys (Figure 2B)
Angiograms taken from decellularized kidneys postperfusion with unreplenished and unfiltered blood for 24 h revealed alterations in the decellularized vascular architecture and parenchyma (Figure 2C)

Summary

Introduction

The incidence of kidney failure, otherwise known as endstage renal disease Zambon et al is rising globally [1, 2]. Transplantation is the best option to treat ESRD. Very few patients receive a timely transplant due to the complexity of the procedure, lack of donors, low viability of organs, and prevailing immunological incompatibilities [6–8]. There is a definite need for alternatives to address this worldwide problem. Whole organ bioengineering has been proposed as one such alternative. Major advancements in this field have been developed using three-dimensional bioprinting, advanced stem cell technologies, and organ decellularization. Among these advancements, decellularization techniques currently hold the most promise for creating a bioartificial kidney [9, 10]

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