Abstract
In tendons, collagen fibers are structured with a helical supra-molecular organization and interact with structured light depicting intrinsic and form birefringence (FB). FB is an optical anisotropy of the permittivity that is being used in the construction of man- made devices to filling up practical purposes. In the present case the used biomaterial displayed highest levels of FB. Linear polarized monochromatic light, after traveling microscopic sections of collagen fibers, exhibit elliptically polarized front of light, with angular momentum, that after trespassing a second polarizer generated vortices images. Advanced polarized microscopy, structured light, was used in this study to detect and characterize the production of vertices images by collagen fiber as structured biomaterial. Microscopic sections used in the present study fulfilled all of the conditions for generating vortices. Here, it is shown, for the first time that vortex structures are generated by chiral supramolecular collagen fibers in birefringent bundles, and can be observed with a polarizing microscope. Additionally, it is hypothesized that the vortices in biological structures are part of a mechanism of signal transference from extracellular space to cells. Considering that the spatial distribution of collagen fibers and bundles in connective tissues may vary, it is assumed that the complexity of the corresponding vortex morphology may also vary. Finally, it is recommended that the structured characteristics of collagen fibers chirality and their optical anisotropic properties could be used as inspiration for new man-made structured devices.
Highlights
Chirality, an optical activity of molecules, chemical composites and inhomogeneous birefringent elements, generates optical vortices [1,2,3]
Collagen fibers and collagen bundles are nanometric-structured supraorganization exhibiting high molecular order that generate optical anisotropic properties especially FB, as defined by Bêche and Gaviot [21] as “In optics, an anisotropy property on the permittivity tensor, called form birefringence, occurs in sundry multiple quantum wells consisting of two constituents.”
In the present work we have examined optical anisotropy images in rat tendon sections to search for optical vortex generation in a nonlinear birefringent chiral body such as tendon collagen bundles
Summary
An optical activity of molecules, chemical composites and inhomogeneous birefringent elements, generates optical vortices [1,2,3]. The interaction of metamaterials with linearly or circularly polarized light, along with Gaussian beam propagation in complex materials has been assumed to occur with properties not found in nature [3] This affirmation cannot be sustained in the face of the optically anisotropic properties exhibited by biological materials such as collagen fibers in tendons [5,6,7,8,9], which have been described as chiral bodies generated from chiral molecules [7,10,11]. Especial attention must be paid to of Neale et al [25], showing construction of a microgear movement of which depends on the photonic moment generated by form birefringence nano-structures
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