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Publications

Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Ppublish

PubMed: 40151216 DOI: 10.1117/1.JBO.30.3.036007

Assessment of skin fibrosis in a murine model of systemic sclerosis with multifunctional optical coherence tomography.

J Biomed Opt 30(3):036007

Authors: Harshdeep Singh Chawla, Yanping Chen, Minghua Wu, Pavel Nikitin, Jessica Gutierrez, Chandra Mohan, Manmohan Singh, Salavat R Aglyamov, Shervin Assassi, Kirill V Larin

Affiliations

  • University of Houston, Biomedical Engineering, Houston, Texas, United States.
  • University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston), Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States.
  • University of Houston, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Houston, Texas, United States.
  • Baylor College of Medicine, Integrative Physiology, Houston, Texas, United States.

Abstract

Significance

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic idiopathic disease that causes immune dysregulation, vasculopathy, and organ fibrosis that affects more than 3 million people in the US alone. The modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) is the current gold standard for diagnosing and staging skin fibrosis in SSc. However, mRSS is subjective, requires extensive training, and has high observer variability.

Aim

We aim to provide a quantitative method for the assessment of fibrosis.

Approach

We utilized optical coherence tomography (OCT), its extensions, optical coherence elastography (OCE), and OCT angiography (OCTA) to evaluate SSc-like fibrosis and therapy response in a mouse model.

Results

We showed stiffness differences between fibrotic and normal mouse skin by week 4 ( ) during the longitudinal study. In the treatment response study, OCE recorded higher elastic wave velocity in untreated fibrotic skin ( ). Treated fibrotic skin stiffness was between normal and fibrotic levels. OCTA indicated significantly dilated microvasculature in fibrotic skin versus control ( ), with more dilation in the treatment group ( ) than in normal skin.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that OCT and its extensions effectively analyze dermal fibrosis. OCE revealed increased stiffness in fibrotic skin, OCTA showed vessel dilation, and OCT noted morphological changes in fibrosis tissue.

MeSH

Skin, Sclerosis, Fibrosis, Tomography, Elasticity Imaging Techniques, Angiography, Biomedical Engineering, Tomography, Optical Coherence, Therapeutics, Scleroderma, Systemic, Biomedical Technology