In vitro imaging of bone tissue and monitoring of tissue viability by optical coherence tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has developed as a promising medical diagnostic imaging technology for noninvasive iii sins cross-sectional imaging of biological tissues. We present this technique to image bone tissue and to monitor the redox state of mitochondria enzyme Cytochrome oxidase (CytOx) in bone for applications in tissue engineering. Superluminescent diode (SLD) with its peak emission wavelength (lambda = 820nm) on the absorption band of oxidized form of CytOx was used in the experiments. The results demonstrate that the OCT system is capable of imaging the calvaria of newborn rats tomographically with a resolution at 9 microns, which could only be previously obtained by the conventional excisional biopsy. The thickness of periosteum of various calvarias from different ages of rats can be accurately determined by the system. The backscattered power-versus-depth profile from the liquid phantoms (naphthol green B with intralipid) and tissue specimens (periosteum of calvaria from newborn rats) are used to quantify the absorption changes of the sample. Absorption coefficients of naphthol green B could be quantified accurately by the linear relationship between attenuation coefficients from the slopes of the reflected signals and naphthol green B concentration. The results also show that the attenuation coefficient decreases in periosteums as CytOx being reduced by sodium dithionite, demonstrating the feasibility of this method to monitor the redox state of tissues studied.