Quantitative Assessment of Hyaline Cartilage Elasticity during Optical Clearing using Optical Coherence Elastography

We report the first study on using optical coherence elastography (OCE) to quantitatively monitor the elasticity change of the hyaline cartilage during the optical clearing administrated by glucose solution. The measurement of the elasticity is verified using uniaxial compression test, demonstrating the feasibility of using OCE to quantify the Young's modulus of the cartilage tissue. As the results, we found that the stiffness of the hyaline cartilage increases during the optical clearing of the tissue. This study might be potentially useful for the early detection of osteoarthritis disease.