IMAGING COLLAGEN PROPERTIES IN THE UTEROSACRAL LIGAMENTS OF WOMEN WITH PELVIC ORGAN PROLAPSE USING SPATIAL LIGHT INTERFERENCE MICROSCOPY (SLIM)

Chenfei Hu1,2,3, Melissa Santi 3 , Oluwatobi Adelaja4 , Andre Kajdacsy-Balla4 , Gabriel Popescu1,2,3 and William Kobak 5 *
Optics and Photonics, Frontiers in Physics, 10, Page 3389 2019

We studied collagen fiber organization in tissue affected by pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and compared it to asymptomatic controls. Both the control and POP tissue biopsies were prepared and measured by a highly sensitive quantitative phase imaging (QPI) system, called spatial light interference microscopy (SLIM). Combined with automatic image processing, this modality provides quantitative, high-throughput assessment of fiber morphology. We found the fiber orientation in prolapsed specimens is less homogeneous, indicating an abnormal organization of collagen in the extracellular matrix (ECM).