Presenter: Leanne Lannucci
BME 4th year Ph.D. student
Dr. Spencer Lake Lab
Musculoskeletal soft tissues like tendons and ligaments are commonly injured, leading to debilitating pain and overall loss of tissue function. Since tendons and ligaments are comprised of highly aligned collagen fibers, they exhibit birefringence that can be leveraged for visualization via polarimetry. Visualization of the collagen fiber architecture and how it responds to load is pivotal to understanding structure-function relationships in chronic and degenerative musculoskeletal soft tissue injury and to best inform repair technique for optimal outcomes.Previous studies in the Lake Lab have shown the utility of transmission mode quantitative polarized light imaging (QPLI) in correlating microstructural properties of musculoskeletal tissues with mechanical function duringex vivotesting. However, the excision and tissue processing required to enable light transmission precludes the use of QPLI in physiologically relevant applications. I will be discussing development of a reflectance based quantitative polarized light imaging (rQPLI) technique that permits real-time, dynamic analysis of collagen microstructure in these commonly injured tissues in more clinically relevant scenarios of tissue damage and healing.