Abstract
Due to the limitations of current imaging techniques, visualization of lymphatic capillaries within tissue in vivo has been challenging. Here, we present a label-free high resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) based lymphangiography (OLAG) within human skin in vivo. OLAG enables rapid (~seconds) mapping of lymphatic networks, along with blood vessel networks, over 8 mm x 8 mm of human skin and 5 mm x 5 mm of human areola. Moreover, lymphatic system’s response to inflammation within human skin is monitored throughout an acne lesion development over 7 days. The demonstrated results promise OLAG as a revolutionary tool in the clinical research and treatment of patients with pathologic conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases.
Highlights
Due to the limitations of current imaging techniques, visualization of lymphatic capillaries within tissue in vivo has been challenging
The results shows that the lymphatic vessels are in smaller shapes in the top layers of dermis and it becomes larger in the deeper layer, which is consistent with the literature[22]
Several studies have pointed out the importance of lymphangiogenesis and its role in tumor metastasis in cancer progression[25,26]
Summary
Due to the limitations of current imaging techniques, visualization of lymphatic capillaries within tissue in vivo has been challenging. We present a label-free high resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) based lymphangiography (OLAG) within human skin in vivo. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging tool for non-invasive, label-free in vivo imaging of tissue[13]. It can provide a better penetration depth in tissue than a microscope (~up to 2 mm) with a high resolution (~10 μ m). Optical microangiography (OMAG) is a label-free non-invasive imaging and processing method to obtain 3D in vivo blood perfusion map in tissue beds down to capillary level using Fourier domain OCT14,15.
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